Star Fox: Tiberium Wars
by Champ11
Summary: A once powerful race developed the most powerful device the universe has ever seen, and at the same time, created the universe’s most deadly poison. That mistake cost them their lives; and now it will soon take ours.
1. Chapter One: The Crystal

**Star Fox: Tiberium Wars**

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Command and Conquer, despite how much I wish I did. EA does, despite all of my efforts of wishing it away from them.

**Author's Note:** For those who wish to know, this takes place more towards the end of the Third Tiberium War (campaign wise, around the part where the Commander is in Italy fighting the Scrin). The main character is from the standard GDI faction (for those of you who have played Kain's Wrath). Also, Star Fox doesn't show up until the next chapter, and it takes place after Assault but before Command.

_A once powerful race developed the most powerful device the universe has ever seen and at the same time created the universe's most deadly poison. That mistake cost them their lives; and now it will soon take ours._

Chapter One: The Crystal

Master Sergeant Eric Johnson was running full force. His breath was loud in his ears as he ran through the rubble that at one time had been a suburban area of a city. He activated his jump pack and flew over a row of houses that barley even stood on their own. Johnson landed hard on some rubble and some of the collapsed. He fell off the pile of concrete and debris and landed on his right leg badly.

"Ah!" he grunted as he collapsed onto the ground and felt his right ankle twist, "Sierra Oscar Mike Uniform!" He pushed himself back onto his feet, ignoring the fresh scream of pain from his ankle. He started running again. As he ran through several former backyards, a shadow passed over his head, making him looked up. An Invader Planetary Assault Carrier was overhead, launching its fighters at some GDI forces in the distance.

'I hope it hasn't spotted me,' he thought as he quickly ran into one of the houses. 'I can't risk transmitting from here. The Invaders for sure will pick it up and then it's good-bye me…' he thought. He quickly brought up a 3D map of the surrounding area on his Heads-Up Display. He placed a Nav marker on the most likely route out of this mess and closed the map. The HUD displayed the marker off to his left. He quickly took in his surroundings. The house was charred up badly, and had some Tiberium growth along one of its walls. The place was completely empty. Not a single picture on the wall, or some trinket forgotten. 'Either these people were the smart ones, or this place has been looted…' Johnson thought, 'More importantly, I need to get out of here.' Johnson crouched down, shouldering his rifle, and started to creep out the way he came. He froze when five Invader shock troopers ran past the door without stopping. 'Ok, plan B was better anyway…' he thought as he turned around and started looking for another exit. Seeing an extra rickety stairway that just might take his weight, Master Sergeant Johnson went for it. He took each step very carefully, slowly easing his weight onto each step. After about five minutes of climbing the stairway, he moved through a small hallway to another stairway that lead up to an attic. There was a hole in the roof in front of the stairway, and there also was serious tiberium contamination. Avoiding the tiberium, Johnson carefully maneuvered his way to the hole, and climbed through it. Once on the roof he crawled along it to the gap between it and the next home. He looked up and saw that the carrier had moved on. Most of the Invader had also moved on as well.

"Incoming transmission," stated the armor's EVA AI.

"Ghost, If you can hear this, the Invaders seem to be moving towards area Romeo four. The Commander wants you to check that out. See what they are up to. Report what you find. If they are pulling back to their base, stay there and spot for our artillery. We might just win this thing yet. Good Luck, Harrison out," said Sergeant Major Tom Harrison.

"Objective complete. Receiving new mission data…Analyzing…" stated EVA, "Placing new Nav marker."

A new blue objective marker popped up on Johnson's HUD. Johnson opened up the 3D map and saw that the Nav marker was about two and a half klicks from his location. Johnson quickly memorized a route. He exited the map and looked around. There was no Invader visible. 'Those alien mothers are just like NOD. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they ain't there,' he thought. Johnson pushed himself back onto his feet. 'I guess I have no choice. I have to catch up to those alien scumbags somehow…' he thought as he readied his jump pack.

He activated it and jumped. He sailed over the backyards of several houses and over another row of them, and landed in the middle of a street. He ran over to another house and ran through it. He kicked the rear door that barred his passage down and continued into the house's backyard, heading East (Inside joke; Weast! It's Weast, dang it!). He vaulted over a wooden fence and ran through a small alley between two houses. He looked around, again seeing no hostile presence. He sprinted across the street and ended up behind another house. He continued across the backyard until he had to stop because of an extremely large sized tiberium field. In the middle of the field stood and Invader Tiberium growth accelerator.

'If only I could get to that thing. Those things are only making our situation worse…' Johnson thought as he glared daggers at the building. He shook his head and looked for a way to cross the field without touching any of the dangerous substance. He checked and saw that his jump pack was about half recharged. 'I could wait and try to jump over or just try to walk around it… I don't even know if I could jump over the thing…' he thought.

"EVA, update maps, plot quickest route around with minimum tiberium exposure," Johnson said.

"Updating… Updating… Update complete, plotting course… Course complete. Placing Nav markers now," EVA stated. A new green marker popped up on the HUD.

"How much exposure to tiberium?" Johnson asked.

"None," the monotone voice of EVA stated. Johnson faced towards the first marker, north of his position, and started running. He continued scanning the perimeter. The area felt too empty. 'They must really need those units at Romeo-four… There aren't even any Buzzers here…' he thought as he passed a house that had signs of Buzzers garrisoning it. As Johnson reached the first marker, another green marker appeared on his HUD. This one appeared directly to his right, directly across the Tiberium field. Johnson opened up a 2D map.

"Overlay this Tiberium field on the map," Johnson said. The map focused on his position. The area directly in front of him turned green.

"Add waypoint markers onto the map, and add in my jump distance," Johnson said again. The green marker was just on the other side of the Tiberium field. A red marker appeared just on the edge of the Tiberium field farthest from him. Johnson let a small smile appear on his face before he quickly dismissed the feeling and focused back on the mission. He quickly exited from the map and checked the status of his jump-pack. With a running start, Johnson jumped and activated his jump-pack. He arched over the Tiberium field and over a house that was ridden with the stuff. He flew over the field and landed safely on the other side. Johnson quickly scanned his surroundings and saw a new green marker appear on his HUD, this time Southeast of his position. He opened the 2D map again and saw that there was a gap in the Tiberium field. However, he would have to wait for his jump-pack to recharge. Johnson shouldered his rail carbine and scanned the area. There was an annoying feeling in the pit of his stomach.

'Something isn't right about this whole situation,' Johnson thought as he scanned the area. He checked the status of his jump-pack; about fifty percent charged. He looked back up. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed some movement. He brought his rifle to bear. A squad of Ravagers appeared. Johnson opened fire without hesitation. His weapon quickly cut through the Ravagers. They didn't even get a single round off before the last one fell. 'I love this advanced gear,' Johnson thought as he checked his jump-pack again; fully charged. Johnson let a primal grin grace his features.

"Chalk up another five kills, EVA," he said as he started running towards the Nav marker. Just before he reached the Tiberium field he jumped and activated his jump-pack. He sailed over the empty Tiberium field and into a small clearing. He crouched down again as another green marker appeared on his HUD. He scanned the area, and moved to the center of the clearing. Surrounded on all sides by Tiberium, Johnson didn't like where he was, and check on his jump-pack. It was only twenty five percent charged. 'Not good…'he thought, 'Wait… Oh man, how could I have forgotten that?'

"Eva, focus all energy on weapons and the jump-pack," Johnson said.

"Transferring energy to weapons and jump-pack," EVA said. Johnson checked his jump-pack and saw that it had jumped to fifty percent. It quickly climbed to sixty percent and continued at a rapid pace. Johnson focused his attention back on his surroundings. He scanned his surroundings one more time before he faced towards the green marker. It was towards the East. Johnson activated his jump-pack and sailed towards the next marker. He lands at the edge of the Tiberium field.

"Standard power distribution," Johnson says quickly, and he scans the area quickly and starts to run into the city.

"Standard power distribution," EVA acknowledged. Johnson ran into the city and made it to the first corner. He checked down the street he was on, and then checked the street that ran to his right and left. Seeing nothing, he quickly ran across the street and stopped at the corner of the street on the opposite he was on. 'Something doesn't feel right,' Johnson thought as he crouched down and started to move down the sidewalk. Before he even got two yards from the corner he just left, a Shard Walker moved down the street ahead of him.

"Crap!" Johnson said as he quickly opened the door to his left and dove into the building. He kicked the door shut quickly. He then picked himself back up and ran down the corridor straight (See, I can spell it correctly. Everyone keeps spelling it as 'strait' as in a narrow body of water that joins two larger bodies of water) ahead. He moved down the corridor with his carbine shouldered. Johnson turned left at the first junction, and took a right at the next junction. He came to a double-door. He busted through them and quickly checked the street he was on. He ran across the urban street and slammed into the building across the street. He slowly walked up the street. When he got to the corner at the next intersection, he peaked around the corner. Johnson counted four swarms of Buzzers and five squads of Shock Troopers. That didn't include the massive amounts of other Invader vehicles around the center of the intersection, a block away from his position. 'I think I'll need some back-up,' Johnson thought as he ducked back into cover.

"This is Ghost. Command, I have found were the Invader are rallying at. I think I see something in the middle of where they are standing. Hold on let me try and get a better view…" Johnson said over the radio as he peeked back out and zoomed in using the built-in binocular function in his helmet. He saw a small blue colored crystal sitting there on the pavement. "Command, there is some sort of crystal like stone in the center of the street. The Invades seem very interested in it," he said.

"Incoming transmission," EVA said.

"Ghost, by whatever means possible get that crystal, Tiberium or not. The Invaders like it, so we want it. Get that crystal at all costs. We will send in support to distract them. Command out," said a voice over the radio.

"Objective complete. Incoming new mission data… Analyzing…New objective marked," said EVA, as Johnson thought, 'Are they crazy?! How in the world can I get that thing when an army is standing in my way?'

"Mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do or die" Johnson muttered to himself as he prepared to run out there and grab the crystal.

"Incoming Electromagnetic Pulse. Stand-by," informed EVA. 'Ok, so I only have to deal with the infantry. That is much better,' Johnson thought. The EMP burst smashed right into the middle of the group, disabling all of the vehicles around it. Johnson then burst from cover, firing at the Shock Troopers. While running as fast as his legs could take him, Johnson killed two squads before the remaining could turn around to face him. He then swapped his aim over to the Buzzers, eliminating them before they could close the distance between their position and Johnson. After killing the Buzzer swarms, Johnson refocused his aim onto the Shock Troopers. He killed one more squad before he ran past the remaining two squads, all the while dodging their fire.

He reached down and scooped up the crystal. It fit in the palm of his hand, about the size of a fifty cent piece. Johnsons then shifted his aim towards a deactivated Reaper tripod. He placed the crystal into one of his pockets, which had dog tags of GDI infantry, and then grabbed a packet of explosives. He quickly slammed the explosive onto the Reaper tripod and bolted past it while he thumbed the detonator. The Reaper exploded, and came crashing down onto two disabled Devourer Tanks, a Seeker, and one squad of Shock Troopers. Johnson continued running as fast as he could.

"This is Ghost, I have the crystal. I need Evac, now!" he yelled into the radio.

"Receiving new mission data…Analyzing…New Nav marker placed," EVA informed Johnson. A new blue marker came up on his HUD. He quickly opened up a 2D map and saw that his Evac was about one and a half klicks away. Johnson then noticed the fact that none of the Invader had been shooting at him. He looked behind him and saw that they were actually chasing him, and not shooting at him. 'Life is full of mysteries. And this is one of the stranger ones,' Johnson thought, 'but hey, I'm not complaining.' Johnson continued to run as fast as he could until he ran into a Tiberium field. He saw the other side of it and quickly activated his jump-pack. He flew over the Tiberium field and landed hard on the ground. Johnson quickly threw himself to his feet and started running again.

His right ankle was starting to scream in pain again at the abuse it had suffered. Pushing himself past the pain, Johnson continued to run at full speed. He stole a quick glance behind him, the Invader were getting closer. Johnson checked his jump-pack and saw that it wasn't charged. He continued to run as fast as his legs could take him, dodging around random objects in his path and small Tiberium fields. Eventually his jump-pack was charged, but the Invader were so close, that the few remaining Shock Troopers were able to keep pace with him using their blink packs. Johnson dove to the left as he past dangerously close to a Tiberium field. All of the sudden he felt heat growing from the pocket he placed the crystal in. He looked down real quick and saw the there was light shining from it. Johnson dismissed the mystery for now and quickly opened up a 2D map. He saw that the Evac team was only three fourths of a klick away.

Johnson got on the radio, "This is Ghost, I have several Invaders on my tail. Can anyone get me some back up?"

"Ghost, this is Fire team Echo. We got yer back," A voice, with a slight drawl accenting it, said over the radio.

"Good to hear from you Echo. I've have several infantry and armored vehicles after me. They used to have a Reaper Tripod, but I took care of that for you," Johnson replied.

"Why thank ye kindly for that sir," the voice said, "It was mighty nice of you to think of that fer us. We'll take care of the rest. We have a few snipers who 're wantin' to take care of those Shock Troopers on yer tail. If ya could run straight fer just a bit longer, they'll take care of 'em."

"Roger, wilco," Johnson replied, as he started to feel the burn of running through the adrenaline of what was going on. Johnson used his jump-pack one more time until he was about half a klick from Echo's position. Johnson heard the bodies of the Shock troopers fall before the sharp cracks of the sniper's fire. Johnson took heart when he heard the cracks and pushed himself to run faster than before. He was within an eighth of a klick from Echo when a shadow passed overhead. A Mothership was sitting right on top of Echo's location, along with two Planetary Assault Carriers and four Devastator Warships.

"Echo, get out of here! There is a-!" Johnson yelled over the radio before he was cut off the Mothership firing its main gun. The blast hit Echo team, dead center. It was obvious to Johnson that the entire team was dead, but that thought quickly left his mind as some of the blast was heading right for him. He slid to a stop, turned around and started running, but he knew even with his jump-pack the blast would over take him easily. The shining, and burning, coming from the crystal in Johnson's pocket all of the sudden became unbearable. Johnson then suddenly blacked out before the blast reached him.

**Author's Note 2:** I have taken some poetical license and modify what a GDI Commando has, and in some cases can do. Some of the things that I have, Johnson have will just plain make sense in a 'Why wouldn't a single man squad have something like that' (ie grenades) sense. Others will be based off of what I know real life US Special Forces ODAs have (medical equipment, medical training, knives, silencers, back-up pistols, etc) and what Havoc in C&C Renegade had (ie EVA) or what would be believable for that time period and tech level. Some of his equipment has already been introduced; more will be introduced along the way.

**Author's Note 3:** If someone has an idea for a small sized strike force (again for those who have played C&C 3 Kain's Wrath; around three to five GDI (any GDI faction) units strong) that wants to have it introduced to the story, send me a PM or email either with just the units info or, if you have created a whole set of characters to go with the unit, the characters along with it. They might appear in a supporting role. Also, if your unit has a MCV or any of what are classed as heavy vehicles (tech level II and up,) please remove it. Johnson is not going to be riding in anything bigger than an APC or a Pitbull for a while. You'll see why I asked this after the next chapter.


	2. Chapter Two: Just another Day at the

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Star Fox or Command and Conquer. Nintendo and EA do respectively. I do own all OC's though.

**Authors Note:** Alright, so far I have only got three reviews; and one wasn't much of a review. After this I'll only be counting actual reviews. So saying 'this is good,' or 'update' (unless it has been a long time since I have posted without reason) will not count any more. Also, once this hits a certain number of reviews, I'll start real work on the next chapter. I'm writing this as a side project to an actual novel that I am writing. That's the reason for the long time between chapters.

**Response to reviews:**

Centralion: First off, thank you for my first real review on this story. Next, lol. I am sorry to say that you are wrong on both counts, what the crystal is will be explained in about two chapters; however the Tacitus might make an appearance later. Way later.

Newhavoc: Thanks for the encouragement. Trust me, the action picks up from here.

Chapter Two: Just another Day at the Office

Johnson slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes, and noticed his HUD was down. He checked to see if he had any injuries. He couldn't feel anything hurt, besides a dull ache coming from his right ankle. He pushed himself into a sitting position. Johnson did a visual check for any injuries. Finding none, he slowly pushed himself to his feet. He then manually rebooted his armor. After a minute of waiting, his HUD reappeared.

"EVA, armor and medical status," Johnson said.

"Armor is at full integrity. No major injuries detected," EVA stated.

"Thank the Lord for small favors," Johnson muttered. He looked around and noticed that there was no Tiberium in the area. The place was as clean as a blue zone. 'Well, that's odd,' Johnson thought as he picked up his carbine from where it was laying.

"EVA, scan the area for Tiberium contamination," Johnson stated.

"Analyzing, please wait…Scanning…Scanning… Area is free from Tiberium contamination," EVA stated. Johnson was shocked. This was a blue zone! 'A blue zone in the middle of a red zone, how is that possible?' Johnson thought. However, he would inform Command of this little miracle later; first he needed to find out where he was.

'What happened?' Johnson wondered. Johnson looked around and noticed a city in the distance. He zoomed in, and noticed that it didn't look like any yellow or blue zone city he has ever seen.

"EVA, what city am I looking at?" Johnson asked.

"City unknown," EVA said.

"Ok, where are we located?" Johnson asked.

"Location unknown," EVA stated. Johnson sighed, 'Great. Just great. Another day at the office, eh Ghost?' he thought. He held his carbine into a loose two handed grip and started to run towards the city. He ran for about five klicks before he got to the edge of the city. 'Ok, just find the nearest GDI garrison and ask for directions. Piece of cake… Man, Harrison is never going to let me live this down…' Johnson thought as he walked into the city.

As he got about half a block into the city, he heard what sounded like a GDI rail carbine and an Invader Shock Trooper's plasma weapon. Johnson shouldered his weapon and started running towards the sound. After about two blocks he ran past what at first glance looked like a fox. Johnson stopped running and did a double-take. He just ran past a fox on two legs. 'What the? What in the world is that?'

Johnson thought as he turned back and resumed running. He soon started running through a sea of human like animals. All of sorts of animals were there, lions, tigers, wolves, German Shepherds, toads, yellow labs, and even more ran past him as he shoved his way through. 'Whatever these things are, they obviously are afraid of something,' he thought. Once Johnson pushed his way through the crowd of animals, Johnson saw what looked like a child fox-like human running. A moment of humor ran through Johnson's mind before the situation squashed it, 'would you call him a kid or a kit?' Johnson then saw an older looking fox run towards the kid. Another rail carbine combined with a plasma launcher sound and before the older looking fox could get to the kid, he fell with a yelp of pain. Johnson ran and picked up the kit before the kit could run out to grab the fallen older fox. Johnson quickly ran behind cover and placed the kit there.

"Stay here, kid," Johnson said, before he raced out. He saw several of those animals with what seemed like weapons in their hands. Johnson reached out, grabbed the older fox by the collar of the shirt he was wearing and started dragging the fox toward the kit.

"Hey look at the white freak. Fifty credits to whoever can bring me its head," Johnson heard one of the animals with weapons shout. Johnson dragged the older fox into cover just as the animals started shooting at him.

Johnson set the older fox down carefully as the kit yelled, "Dad!" Johnson gave the older fox a once over and saw a plasma burn right in the middle of the back.

Johnson reached down and placed a comforting hand on the kits shoulder while he said, "Don't worry kid, your dad will be fine. Now stay here while I deal with these cowards." The kit nodded his head as he held his father in a hug. The older fox returned it, although barley. Johnson took cover at the corner of the cover they were hiding behind and peeked out.

There were about twenty, twenty five animals with guns out there. Four of them were running towards his position. Johnson leaded out and fired three times, dropping three of the four running at him. Johnson the rolled out of cover and fired at the last remaining runner as it tried to figure out what had just happened. As the last runner fell, Johnson charged forward as he unloaded his carbine at the hostiles. Four more dropped from his assault before they took cover. Johnson quickly slid behind cover as the animals started popping out from cover, taking pot shots at him. 'These guys have no idea on how to use numbers against an opponent. This will be too easy,' Johnson thought. He stood up, and killed two more of the animals. He quickly activated his jump-pack and sailed over the hostiles. He landed, spun around and killed five more before they took cover again. Johnson let a primal, humorless grin grace his features as he ran for some cover as he dodged their badly aimed return fire.

As he rolled into cover, he heard the same animal as before yell, "Kill him already! Rush him!" Johnson popped up from behind his cover and saw the animal that yelled that. Johnson quickly fired at the animal, landing all three rounds from the single burst Johnson shot on its head. The animal dropped. Johnson ducked back into cover and pulled two fragmentation grenades from his belt.

"Got a little present for ya!" he yelled as he threw the grenades into the group of hostiles. Johnson ducked and the grenades went off as soon as they hit the ground. Johnson then threw himself over his cover and rushed in.

Using the chaos he caused, Johnson quickly closed the gap between him and his attackers. Johnson slung his weapon. He jump-kicked the first one in the throat, crushing it. He then grabbed the arm of one who tried to punch him, and broke the animals arm. He then drew his knife and plunged its throat. He then wrenched the knife out and slashed at a third animal. Johnson scored a deep gash on the third animal's arm. He then twisted the knife into an underhanded grip. He then twisted around and stabbed it into a forth animal behind him. He ripped the knife out and delivered an upper cut to the third animal in front of him. He then grabbed its collar, pulled it towards him and drove his armored knee into its groin, all the while sheathing his knife. Johnson then wrapped his arms around its head and quickly broke its neck. He then activated his jump-pack and flew over the melee he had created and unslung his carbine again.

He landed behind cover, hard. His right ankle gave out under the abuse he had been putting it under, and he collapsed to one knee. Johnson gritted his teeth in pain as he forced himself back to his feet. 'Crap,' he thought as he felt his right ankle nearly refuse to take any weight, 'there goes my mobility. If I don't finish this fight soon, I'm done.' Johnson leaned on the cover he landed behind and aimed over it. He started to fire over the animals' heads to suppress them. They all dove for cover as he did this. 'These aren't even trained soldiers. Just punks with guns,' Johnson thought as he continued to suppress the hostiles. He did a quick head count. There were nineteen of these guys left. Johnson stopped spraying them down with fire and focused on his accuracy. When one of the animals popped up to fire at him, Johnson put a burst right through its head. Johnson ducked back into cover.

"EVA, try and get in contact with GDI Command, ands see if you can get some reinforcements over here," Johnson said.

"Searching… no GDI Communication satellites in range…Searching for GDI forces in range…No GDI transmissions detected," EVA stated.

"EVA, try and get in contact with either these animal's law enforcement agency or military. I need some back-up here," Johnson said.

"Stand by, initiating search for any nearby law enforcement or military authorities…" EVA said. While he waited, Johnson popped back up and put two more hostiles down with a few quick bursts of his carbine. Johnson ducked back down as a massive wave of fire hit his cover. He stood back up and shot three more hostiles before he saw a brown and blue fox run into the courtyard he was in. Both of them started shooting with what seemed like the same kind of weapons the hostiles were shooting with.

"EVA, mark the two foxes as allied," Johnson said, as he fired five more bursts, killing three hostiles.

"Marking unidentified aliens as allies," EVA stated. Johnson watched as the two foxes split up. The brown one diving forward into cover, as the blue one ran towards him. Johnson started spraying the hostiles down with fire, forcing all of them to duck back into cover. Another animal joined the fray, this time a blue avian. This one fired and almost strutted across the battlefield in a cocky manner. 'The birdbrain is going to get himself killed,' Johnson thought as the blue fox slid next to him, in cover.

"Who are you?" the blue fox asked with a, surprisingly, British female voice.

"Call me Ghost. What's your name?" Johnson asked, as he took cover to let his carbine cool down.

"My name is Krystal." She said. She stood up and took a few shots with her weapon. Johnson stood back up and fired off a few rounds. He was forced to duck back down as a few rounds flew too close to his head. Johnson grunted in pain as he put too much weight on his ankle. "Are you ok?" she asked.

"I'm sorry to say, but my mobility has been compromised. I'm basically immobile with my injury. I think I might have torn a ligament…or worse," Johnson said, as he gritted his teeth as his right ankle flared up in pain again.

"Ok, just let us take care of this," Krystal said.

"Are you military or law enforcement?" Johnson asked.

"Huh?" Krystal said as she stood back up and took a few shots.

"What's your unit considered, military or law enforcement?" asked Johnson again.

"Our team is called Star Fox," she said, "We are a mercenary outfit."

'Oh great, mercs,' Johnson thought, 'Just my freaking luck.'

"What's so bad about mercenaries?" she asked.

"You fight for money, that's why," Johnson said, as he stood back up and killed four more hostiles, all of them with shots to the head. The battlefield all of the sudden got a lot quieter as everyone stopped shooting. The remaining two hostiles came out with their hands up. Johnson limped out of cover with his weapon covering the two surrendering enemies.

"GDI! Hands in the air! Do not move!" Johnson said. He pushed himself to ignore the pain in his ankle. He dashed forward and quickly knocked the two surrenders down. He flipped them over onto their backs and placed his knees in the middle of their backs. He grabbed their hands, placed them behind their backs and zip tied them. He then stood up and dragged the other two up as well.

"Is there a medic here?" Johnson yelled out as he pushed the two prisoners at the blue avian.

"Here, we'll get you to a hospital," Krystal said as she walked over to me.

"Not for me, there is a wounded civilian over there," Johnson said as he pointed at the place that he left the kit and his father, "Take care of them first. This isn't the first time I've been hit."

Johnson started to run over to the place that he left the civilians and found that they had not moved. The kit looked like he had been crying. Johnson moved over to the older fox, as he pulled out his medical kit.

"How are you doing, little guy?" Johnson asked as he kneeled down, set the medical equipment next to the wounded fox, and removed his helmet. His regulation cut brown hair was soaked with sweat and his normally white face was red from all of his exertions.

"Will my dad be ok mist-" the kid said before he stopped, looking at Johnson's face.

"Don't worry, kid. I've seen men survive worse wounds then that and be fit enough for combat duty in a week," Johnson said, lying through his teeth. The wound his father had was bad. Johnson started to treat the wound as well as he could. He looked over his shoulder and saw Krystal standing there, her hand (paw?) covering her mouth in shock. 'Now you know how I feel,' he thought as he focused back on the wound. Johnson was able to stabilize the fox, but if he didn't get more medical attention, his future looked very bleak. Johnson put his helmet back on and picked the fox up bridal style, being careful not to touch the fox's injuries. Pain lanced through Johnson's body as the added weight was felt upon his bad ankle. Johnson wasn't able to stop the cry of pain that escaped his lips.

"What are you doing?" asked the brown fox as he ran up to us.

"My job," Johnson stated through his gritted teeth, "EVA, find the nearest hospital and plot the quickest route. Also, discontinue search for military or law enforcement reinforcements."

"Searching…Searching…Hospital located, plotting quickest course…Course plotted. Placing NAV marker now," EVA stated. A green marker appeared on Johnson's HUD. Johnson started running towards it; he grunting in pain with each step but not letting it slow him at all. He ran straight towards the green marker. He jumped and activated his jump-pack. He flew over the building right in front of him and found an empty road waiting for him. He landed on the ground; left leg extended more than his right. He still yelped in pain even though he cushioned his landing with his left leg. He pushed the searing pain out of his mind again and ran as fast as he could. The green marker showed that the hospital was about three fourths of a klick away, but when it came to a city, Johnson knew a half a klick could quite easily take more time that he had.

"EVA, focus all energy on my jump-pack. Get it recharged as fast as possible," Johnson said as he booked it down the street.

"All energy is now focused on the jump-pack," EVA's monotone voice stated. Johnson checked his jump-pack's status and saw that it was ready for another jump. He activated it and flew down the street. He landed again with a cry of pain. 'Much more of this,' Johnson thought as he started running again, 'and I'll put myself out of action. The GDI needs me to stay in top shape… But it isn't worth this civi's life.' Johnson's right ankle was hurting worse than ever, but he pushed himself faster because of it. He focused himself completely on getting to the hospital as fast as he humanly could. He checked his jump-pack and saw that it was about halfway charged. He continued running, with the hospital about half a klick away. 'A third of the way there,' Johnson thought as he checked the jump-pack's charge again. This time it was fully charged.

He jumped and activated it again. He flew down the street and landed. Johnson continued to run. He focused on nothing but placing one foot in front of the other as fast as he could. He activated his jump-pack one more time, after he realized it had recharged, as he was about an eighth of a klick away. He landed hard and pain lanced up his ankle again, this time with a sickening crack. Johnson was able to, however, maintain his balance and speed. He continued to run as fast as he could. The pain coming from his right ankle was worse than ever. Every time his right foot came down, extreme pain would lance up his leg. When he reached the hospital, he rushed right through the doors.

"I need a doc here now!" Johnson yelled as he ran in.

"What happened?" a nearby nurse asked as she looked at the fox in Johnson's arm.

"He took a round to the back. I patched it up as best I could with what I had. Now get him to a doc!" he yelled.

"Set him there," the nurse said, pointing to a stretcher. Johnson set the old fox onto it and the nurse wheeled the fox out of sight. Johnson limped over to a nearby couch and all but collapsed onto it. He took off his jump-pack, set it near him, and quickly passed out from the pain coming from his right ankle.


	3. Chapter Three: Infection

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Star Fox or Command and Conquer. Nintendo and EA do, respectively.

**Author Note: **Ok, I think I need to make it clearer. I'm doing this to get better at writing stories. At the very least, say what you like about it. Saying 'Update,' right after I post a chapter is a waste of not only my time but the person who typed its time. It's also saying to me that I could post whatever I wanted, no matter the quality, just as long as it is done fast. Again, I'm doing this for one reason. I want to get better at writing stories. Any reviews I get I would love to have directed at that goal. What did I do wrong, what did I do right?

**Replies to reviews:**

Rattler20200: (insert Homer voice) D'oh! (remove Homer voice) I knew something didn't sound right. Ah well, he'll find out soon enough. I'll have to go back and fix that. Thank you for pointing that out. My third real review. Hooah!

Centurion-187: Here you go, new chapter. Sorry that I didn't have time to gift wrap it. (- bad joke) I would have had this up sooner, but getting ready for collage and ROTC takes precedents (I move to my dorm on Aug 27, and I am a Cadet in the US Army). W00t forth real review!

Chapter Three: Infection

"Ghost. Ghost, please wake up. Ghost. Ghost!" a voice said. Johnson slightly awoke, feeling extremely drowsy.

"He's coming around," a different voice said. Johnson heard something and felt intense pain come from his right leg.

"That ankle looks bad. Somebody get a cart in here…" a voice said before Johnson past out from the pain again.

Johnson woke up with a groan. He forced his eyes open, before he groaned again in pain from the light and shut them. He waited a minute and then tried again. This time the light didn't kill his eyes, although he couldn't see a thing. Everything was too blurry to see. He heard, what could have been, a heart monitor beeping. As his vision cleared, Johnson looked around and saw a saline IV stuck into his arm and noticed that he was wearing a hospital gown. He sat up too quickly and lights flashed before his eyes and he felt lightheaded. He shook his head and reached over and pulled the IV out of his arm. He then shut the heart monitor off and disconnected himself from the machine. He then tossed the blanket off and looked at his ankle. It wasn't in a cast or anything so he, oh so carefully, tapped it. He didn't feel anything so he carefully slid his leg off the bed and onto the floor. He waited for around a minute before he concluded that his ankle was good enough to walk on. Johnson then stood up, keeping most of his weight on his left leg, and looked around. He found his armor lying on the floor next to a chair. He also found a door to, what he assumed was, a bathroom. He walked over, grabbed his armor, and walked into the bathroom. He then disrobed and started putting on his armor. When he was working on getting his chest armor on he heard the door to the hospital room he just vacated.

"Hey, Doctor. Are you sure this is where Ghost was placed? He isn't here…" a female voice said.

"What?" another voice said. Johnson stopped putting on his armor, and carefully put his ear to the door. "He's gone!" he heard the same voice exclaim, "Nurse, let security know that Ghost is missing. Tell them to bring him here unharmed!" Johnson chuckled and decided that the 'joke' had gone on long enough.

He knocked on the door twice and announced, "I'm in here, getting dressed." Johnson tried hard not to burst out laughing as he finished putting his armor on. He decided to leave his helmet off and opened the door. When he opened the door, he saw both Krystal and a German Sheppard dressed in a doctor's uniform. The look on their faces was the last straw and Johnson broke out in laughter.

"There is… a reason… I'm called… 'Ghost,'" Johnson said between bouts of laughter.

"Yeah, very funny. Now, I have a question. Why do you hate mercenaries so much?" Krystal asked.

"The reason is that you fight for whoever will pay you the most. Not for whatever reason the person who hires you fights for. I do my job, not for the money as I don't get paid enough to do even a quarter of what I do, but because I firmly believe in why I am fighting. I fight so that my planet can live free of Tiberium, free of NOD's tyranny, and just live free. I am willing to die for that cause, but mercenaries… they die just for the money. Also, they have no honor. It doesn't matter what they get paid to do, whether that be fight a group of terrorists or slaughter children because they live in the wrong place. It's all about the money," Johnson said as he looked right at Krystal.

"We are not like that at all," Krystal said.

"Tell that to the citizens that used to live in the Y-6 Zone when NOD hired a bunch of Mercs to slaughter them. My unit had to slog through that fight and a quarter of our unit was killed due to them and regular NOD forces. NOD wants to destroy our world and yet the Mercs still fought on their side. Why is that? It's because NOD has a lot of high interest bank accounts," Johnson said. Krystal opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Johnson looked at her one more time before he looked at the Doctor. "Hey, doc. Where is the rest of my equipment? I need my rifle back, ASAP," Johnson said.

"We have your weapons stored downstairs in the lobby. I must say, we found a very interesting crystal in your possession. Where did you get it?" the Doctor asked.

"Picked it up on my last op. What can you tell me about it?" Johnson asked.

"Its crystalline structure is amazing. I have never seen anything like it. However I can tell you that it seems to be just a small piece of a larger one. Most of the test we could run without your permission came back as inconclusive," the doctor explained.

"Run whatever test you want, just don't damage it. The Invaders, an alien race that has just recently invaded my world, want it for some reason. Even when I picked it up they didn't fire on me, so they want it bad. My superiors want to know why," Johnson said, "However I'd like to be present for that. I have my orders to follow."

"Ok, we'll run more through tests and see what we can find," the Doctor replied, "Now, I'm sorry to say but we are going to need payment. I'm sure you don't have any lylatian credits so…"

"I don't even have any GDI credits on me anyway, however I can provide you with a payment voucher that will be honored by the GDI Treasury department," Johnson said.

"Star Fox would be willing to pay for the treatment," Krystal interjected before the doctor could respond to Johnson's suggestion.

"No, I don't need your help, merc," Johnson said as he shot Krystal a glare.

"If that's the case, the Cornerian government will pay Mister Ghost's bill," a voice over by the door out of the room said. Johnson looked over and saw a gray wolf standing in the corner, "Name's Sergeant Major Jack Westridge, Cornerian Special Forces. I'm assuming that Ghost is a call sign of some sort?"

"That's correct. My rank is Master Sergeant. I'm a GDI Commando," Johnson said, "Give your superiors the GDI's thanks, Sergeant Major. Now if you all don't mind, I have to figure out a way to get back and finish fighting a war. I'm already deep enough in it as it is."

"Actually, my job is to figure out why you are here. If you are here by accident then to help you out in any way I can, either by helping you get settled here or by helping you get back to wherever you came from. I'm guessing you want to get back?" Jack said.

"Yeah, although the GDI could use all of the help it can against these Invaders. I don't have the authority to do so, but on the field I can tell you things are not looking good, so I would like to bring forth an offer of an alliance between GDI and the Cornerian government," Johnson said as he started walking towards the door.

"I'll let my superiors now, see what they say. Now wh-" Jack said before he suddenly stopped, "Krystal, there is a situation that I was just informed of. Seems some of Andross' lackeys have shown up for a fight, both in space and on the ground. The General is wondering if you'd like to help out."

"Sure, we'll take care of them," Krystal said as she tapped a button on a machine attached to her arm, "Fox, Peppy wants us for a mission. The Remnant are back and looking for a fight."

"If you need some backup, I'll be glad to lend a hand. I could use a little warm up," Johnson said with a smirk, "Sorry Doc, looks like those tests are going to have to wait. I need the crystal back."

"Ok, here. I thought you might ask for it back so," the Doctor said as he handed the crystal back to Johnson. Johnson put it in the pouch that he had it in originally.

"Sure. Krystal, why don't you guys handle the fight in space. We'll handle the fight on the ground," Jack said.

"Ok, good luck boys," Krystal said as she ran out the door to meet her team.

"I still don't trust them," Johnson said as he walked out of the room placing his helmet on his head and securing it to the armor.

"Relax, they are heroes. They've saved Lylat so many times that you can trust them with your first born. Just to let you know, I received a call from a squad of Cornerian Marines that are pinned down. They are the group we need to rally with," Jack said as he followed Johnson out. Johnson ran down the stairs and got to the Lobby. He grabbed his weapons from behind the counter and ran out the door. Jack followed, but wasn't able to keep up with Johnson.

"Hey, Ghost. Wait up! Some of us are not speed demons like you!" Jack yelled after Johnson. Johnson stopped and laughed as Jack ran to catch up.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you that my armor also enhances things like my strength and speed. Without this armor, I'd probably be as fast as you. The increases are minor, but ever bit counts on the battlefield this was designed for," Johnson said as he forced himself to stop laughing.

"Anything else you forgot to tell me?" Jack asked sarcastically as they both started to run down the streets to rally with allied forces.

"Other than I have some of the most advanced armor available, and that some of it is even still in the experimental phase, nope. This actually would be a good time to see how versatile this armor is. Now double time, we have a fight to win," Johnson said as he picked up his speed. They both slid around a corner and immediately came under fire. They both dove for what cover they could reach. Jack got behind a nearby bench and Johnson dove into an alley between two buildings. Johnson leaned out and took in the situation. There was a squad of Cornerian Marines pinned down under what seemed like HMG (A/N: Heavy Machine Gun) fire, but instead of large caliber bullets it looked like plasma. If any of those Marines even raised their head an inch, it would be removed completely. Beyond them were three HMGs being manned by two apes each, and there were three apes there firing their rifles at the Marines as well. 'I wonder if everything is plasma based here,' Johnson thought as he shouldered his rifle and fired a quick burst at one of the MG teams. He dropped the Ape with all three rounds in the head. The Ape's head snapped back and the body lifted up a bit before it fell back to the ground.

"Good shots, Ghost!" Jack yelled as he shouldered his rifle and let loose. Johnson then fired three more bursts from his weapon before he ducked back into cover. He looked up and saw the top of the building. A plan formed in his mind.

"Jack, I'm going to get on top of this building and rain some fire down from there. Think you can handle getting those Marines out of that cover," Johnson said as he stepped back and readied his equipment for the jump.

"Yeah, I can. I don't think they can last long enough even if you ran up the steps though, Johnson," Jack replied.

"Who said anything about running?" Johnson said with a smirk. He activated his jump-pack and flew up to the top of the three story building. He landed on the roof and went prone as one of the MG teams turned their gun loose on him. Johnson crawled along the roof of the building towards what looked like an air vent. He took cover behind it, and the vent was sprayed with plasma. Johnson then peeked out to the left and fire a single three round burst before being driven back into cover. He peeked out again to the left but dove out to the right. He fired his rifle as fast as he could as he tried dutifully to eliminate at least that one MG. As Johnson rolled after the jump and landed on his feet, he noticed that the MG team that was firing at he was down. He then shifted his fire to the other MG teams. The Ape riflemen had been eliminated by Jack's accurate Rifle fire and the pinned Marines had started to peek out and blind fired at the enemy MG teams. Johnson moved out of cover and fired three accurate bursts. He took out the remaining enemy soldiers. Johnson then looked over at the Marines that had fanned out to make sure they couldn't be pinned like that again. There were three that were on the ground and didn't seem to be moving. 'Must be KIA,' Johnson thought as he activated his jump-pack again and landed next to one of the Marines, a red fox that stood at about six feet even, and Jack.

"Well, that went well… How many casualties did you devil dogs take?" Johnson asked.

"Devil dogs?" the Marine asked.

Johnson laughed, "Oh, haha, I'm sorry. Where I'm from the Marines had earned the nickname Telefelhund, which translates as Devil Dogs, during a war known as World War One. I can't remember the exact numbers, but the Marines that fought there had lost somewhere around half their strength against an enemy four times their size and still won the battle. Every time a Marine fell, the Marines fought all the more fiercely. The enemy soldiers also feared a marine and his rifle as they could hit targets further then the enemy thought possible."

"Oh, interesting. I would like to hear more about that later," the Marine said, "We lost three Marines. However we don't have time to talk, we need to push these Apes back. Sergeant Major, what's our game plan?"

"Let's regroup and find out how much ammo we have before we do anything," Jack said.

"Right, beginning an ACE phase," Johnson said while he smirked under his helmet, "I'm good on everything; although, I'd like to take a look at one of those MGs and see if we can bring it with us. An HMG could get us out of a jam if things start going south."

"ACE phase?" the Marine asked.

"Ammunition, Casualty and Equipment phase. It's basically when we check over everything. Make sure we have a good amount of ammunition, treat any injuries we have, and check out our equipment," Johnson explained, "Trust me when I say that the GDI has an acronym for EVERYTHING."

"Well, I have seven fully charged batteries with me, and one at about a quarter charge. Other than that I'm A-ok," Jack said.

"My Marines are good on ammo as well. Besides the three Marines KIA, we have no other injuries. As for equipment we are good on that as well," the Marine said.

"Good. By the way, what's your name, Marine?" Johnson asked.

"Sergeant Tom Stevenson, Cornerian Marine Corp," the Marine said.

"Master Sergeant 'Ghost,' GDI Commando," Johnson said.

"Is there a name to go with that?" Tom asked.

"No," Johnson said.

"Even I don't know his name, so don't sweat it," Jack said as device on his wrist beeped, "Master Sergeant Westridge."

"Sergeant, the Remnant is pushing from the East. Star Fox has tipped the battle in orbit in our favor, so the Remnant ground forces are pushing as hard as they can. Star Fox will join you on the field once the battle in orbit is finished," a voice said from the device.

"Understood, where are they entering sir?"Jack asked.

"Fortuna Avenue. You are the closest unit and the only ones who are available to move without having to disengage an enemy contact. Good luck Sergeant," the voice replied.

"We won't let you down sir," Jack replied.

"EVA, get that frequency and label it as a direct command line," Johnson said.

"Acquiring…Analyzing…Storing…Complete," EVA said.

"What was that?" Tom asked.

"My Electronic Video Agent, known as EVA. Basically, an AI that comes with the armor," Johnson said, "Who was that any way?"

"General Peppy Hare, leader of all Cornerian military forces," Jack said.

"Ah, well we better get moving towards Fortuna Avenue. Something tells me we don't have much time," Johnson said.

"Alright Marines, let's move! Double time to Fortuna Avenue. Be careful, we don't know if there are any hostiles along the route," Tom yelled. The Marines moved from their cover into the street heading to the left. Jack and Johnson both followed closely. They ran down four city blocks before Johnson saw a street sign that said 'Fortuna Avenue.' Johnson checked his weapons and did a quick diagnostic on his armor. Everything came back green. 'Alright, everything is good to go. Time to earn some hazard pay,' Johnson thought. The Marines split into two teams, one with four the other with five. Johnson joined the one with four and Jack joined the one with five.

"Alright, Alpha team will set up here. Bravo, move over to that section there," Jack said as he pointed over to a concrete planter, "and set up there. Open fire only on my command unless they fire first."

Johnson's team started to move over to the planter when Johnson activated his jump-pack. He soared over the Marines and landed right behind the planter. He pressed his back against it and waited for the Marines to get there. The Marines looked at Johnson with a look of curiosity, especially focusing on the jump-pack.

"What took you so long?" Johnson joked. The Marines took cover behind the planter. Johnson spun into a crouch and leaned up to look over the concrete cover he and the Marines were using. He saw what looked sort of like a GDI Predator tank coming towards them as well as several Ape infantrymen.

"Unidentified armor sighted, plus change. Heading our way," Johnson said over the squad's radio.

"I see 'em. I wonder how the Remnant got a Landmaster," Jack said.

"How thick is the armor on top?" Johnson asked as a plan formed in his mind about how to take care of that tank.

"Medium, why?" Jack asked.

"I have an idea that just might work, but I'll need some covering fire," Johnson replied.

"What is it?" Tom asked.

"I use my jump-pack to get on top of that tank and either hijack it or plant a demo charge on it and blow it sky high. Either way, I'll need the infantry suppressed. Think you and the Marines can handle that?" Johnson said as he slung his rifle and prepped a Demo pack.

"Like an order of fries with that?" Jack asked. Johnson chuckled softly.

"Just make sure that on my burger that you hold the mayo. I hate mayo," Johnson replied. Jack gave a quick bark of laughter, along with a few Marines, before they focused back on the opposition.

"Alright, here we go. Get ready," Jack said as the enemy forces reached a distance of seventy five yards.

"I'll take out the tank first. Everyone, provide suppressive fire for my jump," Johnson said while he mentally recited the Soldier's Prayer. The tank got within fifty yards, and slowly moved forward along with its infantry support. Johnson gripped the Demo pack as the Marines tightened their grip on their weapons. 'One sign on tension that transcends races,' Johnson's mind said as his training quickly dismissed the thought. The enemy forces closed to forty yards.

"Easy boys, easy," Tom whispered over the radio. The tank rolled to thirty five yards. The Marines stayed down and pressed into their cover. Johnson clenched his left hand as the tension mounted. The enemy tank reached the thirty yard mark. 'Once more on to the widowing field I go,' Johnson thought, 'Twenty eight yards, almost ready to strike.' The enemy forces continued on, unaware of the ambush they were walking right into.

"Hit 'em Marines!" yelled Jack as he and all of the Marines open fire all at once. Johnson activated his jump-pack and flew through the air. Several Apes dropped in the opening salvo. The remaining enemy infantry dove for cover as the Tanks turret turned to face the Marines. Johnson few over all of the enemy without being spotted and landed on top of the tank's left tread.

"Got a little present for ya!" Johnson yelled as he placed the Demo charge onto the tank. He quickly activated the charge and dove off the tank. Just as he landed on the ground, the demo charge blew. The Tank's power plant took serious damage and also exploded, leaving a crater in the middle of the road as a testimony to the Tanks existence and subsequent elimination. Shrapnel from the Tank flew outwards, and cut down several of the enemy soldiers, wounded several others and knocked those that remained off their feet. Several of the Marines also were knocked off their feet by the blast. Johnson looked up and saw three Apes pushing themselves back to their feet. They also noticed him and snapped their rifles up. Johnson, who was on his knees at the time, threw himself at the enemies. He bowled over them and drew his knife. He quickly stabbed it into the closest one, as the other two Apes tried to bring their weapons to bear. Johnson left his knife imbedded into the Ape he stabbed, and quickly grabbed the second Apes gun and aimed it away from him. The weapon discharged as Johnson drove his fist into the Ape's face. The Ape's head snapped back, but not before its nose made a sickening cracking noise. Johnson then dove right as three rounds from the third Ape's weapon cut through the space he had just occupied a moment before. Johnson yanked out a back-up pistol and put four, forty five ACP ballistic rounds through its head. The Ape dropped to the ground dead. He quickly pushed himself to his feet. He holstered his pistol an unslung his rifle. He had a perfect flanking position on his opponents and he exploited that. He let loose with several three round bursts and dropped five of the remaining Apes. The Apes turned their fire on him and he activated his jump-pack and flew onto the top of a nearby building. He went prone and then crawled back to the lip of the flat rooftop. He shouldered his rifle and peered over the edge.

A moment of vertigo hit Johnson, but his training quickly brought him out of it. He aimed down the sights of his rifle. He set his rifle to single shot, breathed out, breathed in and then held it. He set his sights on an Ape that looked like he was leading the few remaining enemies. Johnson then squeezed the trigger and the Ape dropped to the ground with a hole burning through his head. Johnson then looked for another target and repeated his actions with the first. Another shot, another kill. The Marines had also reaped a bloody toll from the Apes. Out of the forty that had started the battle, fifteen were killed in the explosion, ten killed by Johnson and the Marines had killed fifteen. Johnson looked over at the Marines, not one had fallen in the battle. He stood up and activated his jump-pack. He sailed down and landed next to Tom and Jack.

"That was easy… Too easy…" Johnson said as he scanned the surroundings.

"They were Remnant. The only advantage they ever have is sheer numbers," Tom said almost seeming board.

"Never underestimate your opponent. Never get cocky. The enemy is just as able to kill you as you are able to kill him. Never forget that. Getting cocky gets people killed," Johnson said as he continued to scan the area after he glared at Tom from behind his helmet, "And before you say anything, I know that from personal experience."

"Good news from orbit. The enemy is falling back in a total route. The battle is ours," Jack said as he looked up from the device on his wrist.

"EVA, get me some of the com frequencies used and label them appropriately," Johnson said as he checked the area one more time.

"Analyzing…Analyzing…Storing…Labeling…Complete," EVA's monotone voice said, "Alert, high com traffic detailing potential danger to local military personnel and civilians." Johnson looked at both Tom and Jack.

"Tune my radio to those channels, EVA," Johnson said as he heard several gasps.

"The Remnant cruiser is falling into the atmosphere. It isn't breaking up!" a voice said over the radio. Johnson looked up and saw it surrounded in a halo of flame. The cruiser looked like it was on a direct path for the edge of the city. Even if it landed in the suburbs, the number of civilian casualties would be unacceptably high. However, the cruiser seemed to be falling slowly for some odd reason.

"Let's go Marines! When that bird lands, we need to make sure no one is hurt by it. Let's move!" Johnson yelled, "EVA, mark its LZ with an objective marker."

"Analyzing…New Objective confirmed…Placing NAV marker…Complete," EVA stated. A blue marker appeared on Johnson's HUD, the distance marker placed the LZ at around two and a half klicks away.

"Long run ahead of us Marines. Any recon vehicles that we can link up with and move faster?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah, the thirty eighth AR first platoon is about half a kilometer away, although it's off the direct route, they can meet us about halfway," Jack said after he consulted his wrist device.

"That might be the best, but out of curiosity, what does the AR mean?" Johnson said.

"Assault Recon," Tom replied, "Alright, we have a job to do, Devil Dogs. Move it!" Tom yelled. The Marines let out a cheer and, along with Jack and Johnson, took off running. Johnson activated his jump-pack and soared over the Marines and landed about five yards in front of them. Johnson continued running, staying ahead of the Marines by at least five yards. He stopped at each intersection and checked both ways before he moved; he fired his weapon only once when he was an Ape that was running towards him. The Ape dropped with three smoking holes in his head. After that Johnson activated his jump-pack again and sailed several yards ahead. The distance on the NAV marker was at two klicks. 'Still a long way to go,' Johnson thought as he landed and then checked the progress of the Marines.

"Move it Devil Dogs, I mean Grandma was slow, but she was old," Johnson said over the squad radio.

"Ha ha, Ghost. Not all of us have jetpacks you know," Jack bit back.

"So? I had to qualify as a GDI Commando without a jump-pack before I was even allowed to look at one, haha," Johnson said as he continued running as the Marines eventually caught up with him.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you run faster than us without all of that equipment and with our combat load," Tom said as he caught up with Johnson.

"BTDTBTTS," Johnson said offhandedly.

"What?" Tom said. Johnson laughed.

"Been There, Done That, Bought The T-Shirt," Johnson explained. (A/N: BTDTBTTS, which every letter is said out loud if you're wondering, is an actual military acronym. Go figure on that one…)

"Huh?" Tom said again, obviously it was not clicking with him. Johnson bit back a bark of laughter.

"Part of GDI Commando training is the exact same training that GDI Riflemen receive. They have twice the combat load that you all have, and about the same as mine. However, they have less armor and more ammo on them than I do," Johnson said as he activated his jump-pack again. Johnson landed ten yards in front of the group of Marines and took point again. He ran a bit farther ahead and heard a sound that was close to a NOD Attack Bike. Johnson tightened his grip on his Carbine as he thought, 'Oh great, if NOD is here… Why didn't I think of that before!? If I'm here of course there is a chance of NOD also being here… This day just keeps getting better and better…' Johnson checked the charge of his jump-pack and it was eighty percent charged. 'Just a few more moments, and I can jump to try and see if it really is NOD,' he thought. He then checked the distance to the cruiser was at one and a half klicks. 'Almost time to meet up with the thirty eighth AR. Maybe that's them? Better to be safe than sorry,' Johnson thought as he activated his jump-pack and sailed towards the RV point. Johnson saw several anthromorphic beings riding what looked like a NOD Attack Bike in the general direction of the RV point. Then he landed on the ground and continued running. 'That has to be the thirty eighth. Well, I better beat them there to prove that infantry can move just as fast as them,' Johnson thought with a playful smile that graced his features.

"I got eyes on the thirty eighth AR first platoon. I'll head to meet them at the RV point. See you all there," Johnson said over the radio as he pushed himself to run faster and pull further away from the group.

"Roger that, Ghost. Try not to get yourself killed," Jack replied.

"Yeah, have you ever tried to kill a ghost?" Johnson replied as a joke. He heard a chuckle from the line but couldn't tell who did it. Johnson eventually made it to the RV point after twenty minutes of running and jump-pack. Johnson lost sight of the Marines halfway through his trip. Johnson scanned the intersection and moved over to cover. He dropped to a knee and put up a valiant effort to catch his breath. While he did so, Johnson scanned the intersection. He then realized that if he hadn't seen the residents, he would have sworn that he was on an advanced version of pre-Tiberium Earth. In fact, it reminded him a lot of home. Johnson quickly looked over his shoulder and saw that the thirty eighth was approaching. He looked back and still couldn't see the Marines that fell behind. Johnson then stepped out of cover.

"This is Master Sergeant Ghost, GDI Commando working with the Cornerian military, to the thirty eighth AR, do you read me?" Johnson said over the radio.

"This is First Lieutenant Joshua Haggar, leader of the thirty eighth AR first platoon. What did you say your name was, Master Sergeant?"

"Just call me Ghost. I'm at the Rendezvous point. The Marines I was with fell behind and will catch up momentarily," Johnson said.

"Understood, Ghost. We are about twenty seconds out. Everything clear there?" asked Joshua.

"Completely clear," Johnson replied. He scanned the area a few more times with his Carbine shouldered before he saw the first AR Marine driving in with his bike. This was followed by twenty four other bikes that were also speeding towards the RV point. The first bike he saw pulled up to him and the rider took off his helmet. The rider reviled himself to be a panther

"I'm First Lieutenant Joshua. I assume that you are Master Sergeant Ghost," he said.

"Yes, sir. We just need to wait for the Marines to catch up and we can head-" Johnson said before Johnson looked up and saw the cruiser fly past him and out of sight, followed by a loud bass-filled boom. The sound of the crash was felt more than heard. The shockwave from the crash was enough to knock Johnson off of his feet and almost send Joshua sprawling. Johnson picked himself back up.

"Well, I guess we are just in time," a voice from behind Johnson said. Johnson turned around and saw Star Fox picking themselves up off the ground. Johnson looked at what they were equipped with and had to suppress a fit of laughter. Out of all of them, the blue vixen known as Krystal had what looked like a futuristic version of the old chain gun while the rest of them had what looked like SMGs (A/N: Submachine guns). He quickly shook his head and looked over towards where the Marines should have been coming from.

"Yeah, just in time to miss all of the fighting. Now we just have to clean up the Navy's mess," Joshua said.

"Hey, we had our share of the fighting to!" a high pitched voice said, the voice came from the frog.

"Yeah, the easy part," Johnson said as he looked at the three males, or at least what he thought was male in the case of the frog, "What kind of mercs are you? Out of all of you, the one who has the biggest and meanest gun is the chick of the group. Pathetic. Ditch those pieces of crap you have in your hands and get something with a bit more punch. We don't know if there are any survivors on the wreck that could still carry on the fight. Heck, their ground forces could also have regrouped at the crash site and we'll have an even bigger fight on our hands. She has the right idea, right now the bigger the gun, the better." Krystal brought her hand up to cover her smile and to try and smother her laughter at her team getting dressed down by Johnson.

"Oh yeah? Look who's talking. What kind of junk do you have in your hands?" the blue bird of the group said while he glared at Johnson.

"One of the most powerful infantry weapons ever made. In fact this weapon is still a prototype. I can tell you from personal experience that this weapon can cut through an infantry squad in three seconds, if not shorter. It also makes a decent precision rifle, even though it is a little shallow on the range side. It can even cut through light and medium armored vehicles, they just take longer. Now, if you FNGs (A/N: Freaking New Guys) are done gripping, we have a job to do," Johnson said while he glared back at the bird.

"Listen we aren't a bunch of rookies here. We are Star Fox, Lylat's most elite mercenary team, we know what to do," Fox said.

"So far, from what I can see, you lead two things, Jack and spit. FYI, Jack just jumped ship," Johnson snapped, "The only one of you here that seems to know what they are doing is Krystal over there. Elite mercenaries my hide, someone is getting ripped off." Krystal stepped in between Johnson and Fox and the bird, holding her hands in the air to stop them from going at it.

"Enough. We have a job to do, so let's do it," she said, "By the way Ghost, the blue one is Falco, and the frog is Slippy." Johnson nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"EVA, add all people nearby as allies," Johnson said.

"Analyzing…Analyzing…Analyzing…Complete," EVA stated.

"Hey...we're…here. Just…let us catch our breaths…then we can…move out," Jack said as he ran up to the group completely out of breath.

"Lieutenant, can those bikes carry two people?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah, it's not comfortable, but it can be done. I see what you're thinking. Alright, everyone mount up! It's time to roll," Joshua said. The AR bikers all revved their engines.

"Ghost, you can ride with me," Joshua said as the Marines and Star Fox team all found their own rides. Johnson climbed on and held on to Joshua.

"Alright, let go, I'm not getting paid by the hour!" Johnson yelled over the roar of Joshua's bike as the group took off. Johnson checked the distance to the LZ and saw that the distance had increased by three and a half klicks. The group was speeding through the city and dodged past craters from light artillery and tank rounds, and past Cornerian Marines as they tagged and bagged the dead while medevacing the wounded. The cityscape became one long blur as the bikes quickly increased in speed. After two minutes of riding, the city started thinning out and they found a trail of destruction from the crashed cruiser. The group slowed down and came to a stop as they surveyed the result of the crash. Houses were missing sides and roofs, some homes were outright destroyed, backyards were ripped to shreds and a few bodies here and there along the path of destruction with wounded civilians trying desperately to help each other.

"Second squad, fall out. Help where you can," Joshua said over the unit's radio. A third of the bikers dismounted from their bikes and ran towards the wounded. The rest of the group continued on towards the crash.

"Hey there is the wreck!" Slippy said over the radio. Johnson got off the bike that he was on.

"Everyone dismount. We'll go in on foot. Keep your heads down and eyes open," Johnson said over the radio, "I'll jump in and take a look." Johnson then activated his jump-pack flew towards the grounded cruiser. He landed near the crash and ran towards the lip of the crater. When he got there, he gasped as he saw green crystals growing out of the ground and ship.

**Author's Note:** Bet you didn't see that coming, especially with the chapter title, huh? This is where the main plot really starts up. The last two chapters have just been a prologue of sorts. Also, I just noticed that I just about doubled the word count for this story in one chapter. Were my other two chapters really that short? I'll have to pay attention to that from now on. Now on to one last thing, I'll work on the next chapter, but I will not post it until I have at least **_five_** reviews, and that's real reviews. Tell me something I did well on, what I screwed up on, etc. I don't care if all that a person has to say is negative, as long as it is done in as constructive criticism I'll be happy. Actually one more thing, I don't curse. All acronyms that I use will not contain any profanity and I will list the official version (if there is one) when I explain what it means.


	4. Chapter Four: The Discovery

**Author's Note:** It's official, this story has more hits than the first story I posted (and later removed) and this story only has three (now four) chapters compared to the five it had. Hooah! Also I've now moved into my college dorm and am doing ROTC on top of my college work, so updates will be even worse than before. I _**will**_ finish this story. I hate leaving something half finished. This chapter my seem a little short, but I want to get this posted before I leave for the weekend to Camp Ripley for a FTX (Field Training Exercise).

On a different note, during ROTC today (09/25/09), I was reminded about why I joined up. I didn't do it for free college or for the money or any other reason, just to protect and defend the United States. We were going to watch news clips from 9/11 but we were not able to get inside the building we wanted to do that and a few other things in. I pose a question to all who read this. Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what it felt like to watch those planes crash into the towers? Have you forgotten what it was like to watch people die for real? If you have, this is your wake up call. We made a promise to NEVER FORGET. The US, unfortunately, has been unable to keep that promise completely. I can tell you for sure that not one US military soldier has forgotten that fateful day. If you haven't forgotten, if you see a man or women standing in uniform, thank them. As a cadet, while I am in uniform, I have been thanked several times for my service despite that I have done nothing but PT and sign up. When someone does that, the daily grind of college life and early morning (0430 to 0530 are the times I get up EVERY day) doesn't seem so bad. I feel better about everything after something like that happens. I don't think anyone who hasn't served really understands what it means to us when someone just says thanks.

**Replies to Reviews:**

ObssesedNuker: The reason that not a lot of questions are asked up front by the Cornerians was that Johnson severely injured himself protecting and saving one of their citizens. That, among military personnel, earns him a lot of respect and he even offered to help them out in a battle that he didn't need to be in. So they wouldn't be as pushy in trying to get the answers to their questions. However, next chapter is where the lylatians start getting what questions that they have answered. Another thing is that soldiers, in combat, generally don't care how something works, just that it does. All of that is all done by the top brass and upper level commanders who then dispense the information as they see fit.

Rattler20200: Yey! I actually surprised people with that. I thought I tipped my hand to everyone with the chapter title. About Krystal, I saw a picture once of Krystal sitting with a Gatling gun and it said in the caption something like 'when everything goes wrong, call on the chick with the big gun.' That kinda inspired it, although I felt like Johnson's character really needed to rant on the mercs a little. Also, on the detail about the questions, you're right. Here is where the Cornerians will learn about the GDI, the NOD brotherhood, and Tiberium (however much Johnson really knows about the substance. Don't expect Dr. Mobius' level of knowledge on the subject.

Centurion-187: I think you meant to place your last review on the third chapter, not the first (I think, at least…). Thanks. I'm happy that so many people liked the last chapter. At least out of the ones that reviewed…

Centurion-187 (part two, I think…): Yeah, as I write this I've started wanting to play C&C3 again, but I'm in the middle of college life with ROTC added in and haven't had the time to actually play… *sigh* Those were the good ol' days… *tear*

Lord-Emmanuel-Darkov: Thanks for the review, I appreciate it. Everyone seems to like that portion of the chapter and I have to admit, I liked writing that part. Also, I'm glad that people can understand that sometimes it isn't possible to get answers to important questions right away.

Mooarge: Glad you like it. Positive/constructive criticism reviews always make it easier to write.

Chapter Four: Discovery

Johnson stared at the crystals in mute horror. Krystal then ran up to Johnson.

"Ghost, what's wrong?" she asked. Johnson than snapped out of the shock he was in.

"Get EVERYONE out of the area. NOW!" Johnson said, "EVA, level of contamination?"

"Analyzing…Area is within tolerance levels of a blue zone. Immediate deployment of sonic emitters is highly recommended," EVA stated with its monotone voice. 'Isn't that the understatement of the millennia,' Johnson thought.

"Ghost, what is wrong?! Explain what is happening?" Krystal said.

"I don't have time to explain! This area has been infected with Tiberium. Get everyone out of here!" Johnson said as he started to sweep the area closest to the Tiberium field that was now growing on yet another world. 'Where did this come from?' Johnson thought as he headed down towards the Tiberium field.

"Hey, Ghost! Wait up!" Krystal yelled as she ran after him. Johnson turned around.

"This is Master Sergeant Ghost to all Cornerian forces. Evacuate all civilians from the area around the cruiser. The area has been contaminated with a biohazard known as Tiberium. Evacuate all personnel from the area, whether they want to or not. Do not approach, fire at, or breathe in the Tiberium crystals. They are highly toxic. Anyone found to have the crystal in their body needs to be quarantined immediately," Johnson said over the radio as he looked straight at Krystal. "Listen, you are not properly equipped to go into that cruiser, I am. The only thing you'll do is make yourself die a slow and very painful death. Get out of here!" Johnson said as he stared straight into Krystal's eyes. Krystal blinked in surprise.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Tiberium poisoning. One of the worst ways to die, from what I've been told," Johnson replied as he turned back around and activated his jump-pack. Johnson landed on top of the carrier where there was no sign of Tiberium contamination. He found an access hatch. He looked for some way of opening it, but couldn't find anything. He sighed in frustration.

"EVA, can you hack into the ships controls and open this door?" Johnson said his anger at the situation tinted his voice.

"Hacking…Accessing…Warning, opening nearby door is not advisable," EVA stated.

"Explain," Johnson said.

"Hatch is labeled as a torpedo tube, and is loaded with an armed torpedo," EVA stated. Johnson jumped back from the torpedo's exit. As Johnson fought to calm his wildly beating heart, he looked around to try and find another potential entrance.

"Eva, find be the quickest route in, and with the least amount of Tiberium exposure," Johnson said with an exasperated sigh.

"Analyzing…Analyzing…Plotting course…Course complete. Placing NAV markers now," EVA said. A green NAV marker appeared several meters to Johnson's right.

"Amount of Tiberium exposure?" Johnson asked.

"Within acceptable limits," EVA replied. Johnson sighed again. 'Great. This day keeps getting better and better, don't it?' Johnson thought as he activated his jump-pack to avoid a large patch of Tiberium infected metal. Johnson landed right on top of the NAV marker and the hatch below him opened suddenly.

"Ahh!" Johnson yelled as he fell twelve feet to the floor, when that suddenly gave out and he fell another twenty feet to the room below him. The Geiger counter in his armor automatically activated. It was going crazy, reading a high level of radioactivity, and a warning appeared on his HUD that read "Tiberium Exposure." Johnson quickly stood up and quickly looked for a way out of the mess of Tiberium he fell into. He checked the status on his jump-pack and saw that it was under ten percent charged. Johnson saw a door to his right. He ran through the contaminated room as fast as he could. 'Man, I'm going to need to get myself to a GDI field hospital soon,' Johnson thought as he ran through the door and into a hallway filled with Tiberium crystals. He quickly ducked into the door straight across from him. The room wasn't infected with Tiberium, and seemed to be the sickbay of the ship. Johnson walked as far away from the door as possible.

"EVA, status on Tiberium contamination in me," Johnson said.

"Analyzing…Minimal contamination found…No sign of Tiberium poisoning," EVA stated. Johnson let out a sigh of relief. 'I guess the new armor works,' Johnson thought, 'What was it that that egghead said about this armor? Ahh, forget it. I got a job to do, and I'm not going to do it by sitting here thinking about some high geek techno-babble.' Johnson looked around the room. It was fairly standard for a sickbay, but everything was thrown around due to the crash.

"EVA hack into the system and get me all information relating to Tiberium, or whatever they call it," Johnson said as he walked over to a medical cabinet and started shifting through its contents. The medical supplies that occupied the cabinet were familiar to Johnson: morphine, nitrous dioxide canisters, gaze bandages, surgical thread, surgical needles, scalpels, and the like; things a person would normally find in an OR.

"Hacking…Accessing...Searching…Searching…Search complete…Analyzing documents…Analyzing…Analyzing complete. Documents containing any reference to Tiberium, one hundred and twenty three," EVA states.

"How many of them are related to Tiberium induced illnesses?" Johnson said as he moved to another cabinet and found more medical supplies.

"Sixty four," EVA said.

"What categories do the fifty nine remaining have to do with? General categories, if possible," Johnson asked.

"Researching Tiberium, and Weaponizing Tiberium," EVA said. Johnson paused what he was doing as that. 'Could these guys have already been able to weaponize liquid Tiberium?' he thought. Johnson then backed off from the medical cabinets and moved towards the door.

"EVA, how successful have they been in weaponizing Tiberium and place a NAV marker on the quickest way out of this place," Johnson said as he moved towards the door that lead back to the heavily Tiberium contaminated hallway.

"Current threat assessment: low. Current weapon design is the equivalent of a bow and arrow. Tiberium is placed into the device and shot out at an opponent. Not effective against an armored opponent, unless shot in mass. Placing NAV marker…Complete," EVA replied. A green marker appeared off to the left. Johnson opened the door and booked it down the hallway as his armor screamed at him. He dodged around outcroppings of Tiberium. He turned the corner and ran right into a large outcropping of Tiberium. He ran through it as fast as possible; even though he did that, he still felt the radiation burning along his legs. Eventually he ran into another door. He quickly opened the door and ran through it. The room he had entered was completely empty of Tiberium. Johnson let out a sigh of relief and scanned his surroundings. Several Apes that crewed the ship were laying in various stages of dismemberment. Some of them were lying on the bunks, obviously thrown there by the crash, and all of them were dead, very dead. Johnson felt a chill run up his spin, but he suppressed his emotions and moved toward one of the two other doors in the room. He pressed himself against the wall close to the door, and then opened it. He peeked in the room and saw no one in it. He aimed his weapon at the room and slowly creped in. The room was half collapsed and nothing survived the crash to be able to give Johnson any idea of what duty the room once preformed. For the moment, the room was free of Tiberium. Johnson scanned the room and proceeded to the only door available to him, which was straight ahead. Johnson slowly and carefully walked forward and opened the door, his rifle always at the ready.

He scanned the room and inched his way in; another hallway. 'Man, how many long, dark, and creepy hallways are there in this stinkin' cruiser?' Johnson thought as he cautiously advanced down the hallway. He scanned left and right. None of the doors seemed to have any power, although the rest of the ship seemed to.

"EVA states of the ships power grid?" Johnson asked.

"Analyzing…Primary power disabled…Emergency generators are active," EVA stated. 'Then why are these doors closed… or are they sealed off?' Johnson thought as he approached one door. He tried to open the door, but it refused to budge.

"EVA, divert some power to this door," Johnson said as he readied himself for whatever might be behind that door.

"Analyzing…Working…Complete," Eva stated. The door activated and slide open. Johnson's training kicked in as his weapon, which had lowered as he tried to open the door, snapped up and he let loose with four bursts. Then he rolled to the right and took cover. 'A Devourer!' Johnson thought, as he peeked back around the corner. The Invader vehicle didn't react to his presence or his weapon's fire. Johnson cautiously crept into the room. He then noticed that the Devourer was disabled. However, there was Tiberium growth around the vehicle, and there seemed to be some major damage to the rear of the vehicle. 'So this is where the Tiberium infection began… Those stupid Apes… They have no idea what it is that they have done!' Johnson thought as he backed out of the room and sealed it like before.

"EVA gather all information related to the Invaders and store it. If there is anything of significant importance, notify me and flag it for Intel," Johnson said.

"Hacking…Accessing…Analyzing…Analyzing…Storing…Analyzing…Analyzation complete. Invader's name identified, reason for coming to Earth Identified," EVA stated.

"What is the Invaders actual name?" Johnson asked.

"The Scrin," EVA stated.

"Reason for coming to Earth?" Johnson asked.

"To harvest the Tiberium found there, reason for that unknown," EVA stated.

"EVA, show me the quickest way out of here," Johnson said as he scanned the hallway one more time.

"Analyzing…Plotting course…Plotting…Plotting course complete…Placing NAV marker on HUD," EVA stated. A green marker appeared on his HUD. He followed the route and came to an emergency escape hatch. He popped open the hatch and climbed out; right into a thick Tiberium field. Johnson looked around quickly and found a safe LZ. He then activated his jump-pack and flew over to it. He landed and then started running towards the place that people were being evacuated from.

"This is Ghost, to all Cornerian forces. The Remnant has made contact with a hostile force and has brought its poison to this world. Everyone needs to stay away from the cruiser and the contaminated area. As soon as the equipment to halt the spread of this contamination has been developed, lethal force to keep people away from the contaminated area is authorized. We don't need infect people, or mutants, running around contaminating more areas," Johnson said over the radio, "Someone contact General Hare and let him know that I need to talk to him. This situation just went from bad to worse."

"Ghost!" a voice yelled out as he approached the extraction point. A transport landed and several soldiers got off of it and several civilians then ran on board. Johnson turned to face the voice and found Krystal standing there.

"Yes?" Johnson said.

"What did you find that you needed to make that kind of call?" she asked.

"The Invaders from my home are here. That is how the Remnant got their hands on Tiberium. They either found damaged and abandoned Scrim equipment or captured them. If they have Scrin personnel then they know more about them then we do. The GDI has never been able to capture any Scrin equipment intact. We know nothing about them; however the Remnant does. EVA was able to hack into that cruisers computer and downloaded several files on Tiberium and the Scrin. I know a bit about both, but my job is mainly how to fight them. Other than that, I'm just another soldier. These files know more than I do. I need to get them to the General ASAP," Johnson replied. Krystal gasped at the part of the Scrim being near Corneria. Krystal attentively listened to Johnson as he explained the situation. She then nodded and motioned for Johnson to follow her.

"I'll take you there now," she said as she boarded an interesting craft, in Johnson's opinion. Johnson followed her and got on board the craft. He looked around and sat in a seat in the back. Krystal looked back and patted a seat beside her in the cockpit.

"I don't bite," she said, "You can sit here." Johnson shook his head, stood up and walked over to her. He then took off his jump-pack and set it next to the seat along with his rifle.

Johnson then sat in the seat and said, "I think I should get a medical checkup before I do anything. I ran into and through a lot of Tiberium in that cruiser. I had EVA give a quick check with my armor's medical systems, but that isn't one hundred percent fool-proof."

"We can have a medic check you over while to give the information to the General," Krystal replied as she started the ship and took off. Johnson was surprised by the fact that he could barley feel any acceleration. He chalked that up to advanced technology and kept his mouth shut.

"Your medic's aren't trained to recognize the symptoms of Tiberium poisoning. I don't think they will be able to tell if I have it or not," Johnson replied.

"Can you tell them what to look for?" she asked.

"Yeah… However I think that they have more important issues to worry about, like the civilians that were exposed to Tiberium. I'm a soldier, so they take higher priority than me," Johnson replied, "EVA do a medical scan, specifically for any sign of Tiberium poisoning."

"Scanning…Scanning…Scan complete. No sign of Tiberium poisoning or signs of injuries caused by Tiberium," EVA stated.

"Alright, I'll…Wait; I know I should have sustained at least minor burns from the Tiberium that I ran through. I should have at least first degree burns on my legs… I'll have to check myself later. Get us to the General ASAP," Johnson said, "EVA prepare the files to be transferred to the Cornerian High Command. Keep a copy for GDI's use, however."

"Copying…Complete," EVA states. The ride to Cornerian HQ goes on in relative silence. Johnson reached into one of his pockets and pulled out the crystal that started this whole mess. He took the time to examine it more closely. It was a little larger than a fifty cent piece, back from the days of the USA and the UN, and had a see-through quality to it, although it was cloudy. The clouds inside of was milky white. The crystal had a little weight to it, but was still very light. It did have two more jagged sides to it, and the rest were smooth like polished stone. 'For some reason, I… I don't know why, but I feel that this has something to do with Tiberium. Why do I feel that? Why do I feel that this stone is the key to our salvation?' Johnson thought. He sat lost in thought as Krystal flew her ship towards the HQ. All of the sudden he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Training kicked in and Johnson grabbed what tapped him, twisted it, and was about to palm strike the hyper-extended elbow but he realized whose are he had just twisted. Johnson let go immediately.

"I-I'm sorry Krystal, you startled me. You really need to be careful when doing that to combat hardened commandos such as myself. We, unfortunately, have a 'kill first, think later' reaction to situations that startle us. Be carefully when doing something like that to a combat hardened veteran. Are you ok?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. You just scared me, that's all. Anyways I wanted to tell you that we are almost there," Krystal said. Johnson looked out the cockpit window. He saw a military base with a large building in the middle of it several blocks away from a building that they were heading towards. The craft they were in slowed to a halt and Johnson's adrenaline spiked as Johnson's training prepared him for combat. The craft slowly lowered and Johnson jumped out of his seat and ran towards the exit of the craft. The moment the craft touched down Johnson opened the exit to the craft and dove out of the craft. A Cornerian Marine was running towards the craft when Johnson jumped out. The Marine almost brought his weapon up, but checked the motion.

"You Master Sergeant Ghost?" the Marine yelled as whatever power the craft behind Johnson slowly shut down.

"Yeah. Where is the General? Johnson yelled back.

"He is in one of the meeting rooms here at the 'port. I'll take you to him," The Marine said as he turned around and stated walking towards the door.

"Double time it Marine. I have information that just might make the difference between Corneria still being able to support life in the next decade," Johnson said as he pushed the Marine from behind into a run. They both started running to the door. When they reached the door, it slide open, and beyond it, was what would be considered by civilians to be, organized chaos. The Marine lead Johnson through the crowds of runners and soldiers towards a door that was labeled 'Command Post.' The door was flanked by two Marines in full body armor and looked like they were carrying NOD's laser chain gun. The Marine leading Johnson flashed an ID to the Marines and they let Johnson pass. Johnson looked at the room filled with screens and animals yelling out status reports. Johnson saw an old hare in what he assumed to be a high ranking officer uniform yelling out orders as loud as the old hare can. Johnson ran up to him and saluted.

"Master Sergeant Ghost, are you General Hare?" Johnson asked.

"Yes, so you are the GDI Commando," the old hare said as he looked up and down Johnson taking in what he saw.

"Yes, sir. I need to talk to you immediately about the situation. The information I have just changed it, sir," Johnson said in all seriousness.

"Really? How much?" the General asked.

"On a scale of one to ten, it just went from an eight to an eleven," Johnson stated.

"Alright, this way," the old hare said as he walked towards a door in the back of the CP.

**AN: **Alright you know the drill. This time, six reviews to have me get the next chapter posted as a priority. FYI, if I get any reviews on previous chapters, I'll answer them on the current chapter. I never leave a comment unanswered if I can help it.


	5. Chapter Five: The Briefing

**Author's Note:** Well, where do I start. This is the third time I have had to retype this chapter. My laptop decided one day to hate me and brake down. I then copied this over to a HD and then over to another temporary laptop. It then wouldn't work. I then got it back over to this laptop and it still wouldn't work. So here goes another try… I think technology hates me…

**Response to Reviews:**

R'N'Rer: I'm glad you like it. Trust me, in an upcoming chapter, Johnson will be shown that he is just an average human asked to do an above-average job. He wears his scars with pride, both physical ones and mental.

Centurion-187: There is a reason I have the review thing. It's so I can get reviews at all. Last time I posted something I got about five reviews total for six chapters. That is not a good thing in my book… especially for how long they were. However I'll clarify something. I will actually focus on get the chapters posted when they reach the desired number of posts. I may post something earlier if I get it finished, but I may hold off for a bit before actually posting it. Meeting the desired number of reviews just guarantees a faster post.

Rattler20200: The apes don't know much about Earth, just that there is a lot of Tiberium on it. I'm happy that I've got so many people that enjoy the series. It's funny that I really despise writing, but then again the only things I have been writing before have been essays and the like… I wonder if I should become a writer instead of a soldier… Oh well, I'll do both, for now.

Moorage: Uh… Yes and no is the best I can do without giving away the plot… I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I can tell you though; this is just the start of a long day for Johnson (for those with military combat experience, you know what that means. For those civilians reading this, I pray that you will never find out). Johnson and his team have got a long road ahead of them.

Chapter Five: The Briefing

The General lead Johnson through the door. He then walked behind a desk there and sat down.

"So, what has happened?" the general asked.

"Sir, Corneria has been contaminated with a substance called Tiberium. This substance spreads rapidly, and is highly toxic to all life. To touch the crystals, or even breathe them in, can easily kill a person without treatment. Tiberium spreads by turning whatever it touches into itself. When it happens to a person, it's called Tiberium poisoning. Do you have a computer that I can transfer the documents that my EVA hacked from the Remnant cruiser to?" Johnson said. The general patted the desk in front of him. Johnson cocked an eyebrow, but quickly dismissed his confusion.

"EVA, transfer all documents relating to Tiberium Poisoning to the General," Johnson said.

"Searching…Accessing…Compiling…Transmitting…Transfer complete," EVA stated. The hare then accessed the files and open up one of them. A holographic image suddenly sprang from the desk and hovered over it. The image was of an Ape lying on an examination table. It had an unhealthy Tiberium green tint to its flesh. Johnson winced at the picture as he remembered seeing that color on some humans before. He knew that the Ape was dead, before he looked at its legs. The legs of the Ape where further along in the conversion process than the rest of the body was. Its legs already had Tiberium growths sprouting out of them, and had a distinct Tiberium green color. The legs also seemed to have a ridged structure, like that of the Tiberium crystals. A white document suddenly appeared next to the picture. Johnson scanned through the document quickly and realized it was the medical report on the Ape. Johnson stopped reading and looked at the General. He had a slight green look to him. The image quickly disappeared from view and the General looked very troubled.

"That was a highly advanced stage of Tiberium poisoning. The Ape had to have been dead for at least a day for the poisoning to have advanced that far," Johnson said.

"I can see what you mean. I'll send this information to the doctors. Hopefully they'll get this information in time to help. Now how can we stop it?" the General asked.

"From the technology I have seen your men use, I don't believe that you can stop its spread. The best way to stop its spread right now would be to harvest it. It requires vehicles with mining equipment along with a large storage tank," Johnson explained, "I don't know the exact process, but if you can harvest it and process it, it will be safe to handle. One good thing about Tiberium, is that it sucks up the minerals in the ground, so when you mine the Tiberium, you'll have a good resource for income. If you ignore all the problems with it, it has to be the pinnacle of mining technology. If I could get in contact with my superiors, I know that GDI would come to help you."

"What is GDI?" the General asked.

"GDI, Global Defense Initiative, is a military organization. Its main objective is to combat Tiberium and stop it from destroying our world. It was originally made to combat a terrorist organization known as the Brotherhood of NOD. Although they claim that they are not, everyone now knows otherwise. They believe that Tiberium is the next step in human evolution. They do experiments on their own people, and do not care if they kill innocent civilians to achieve their goals. Their leader, a man known as Kain, is like a freakin' cockroach. He doesn't know how to die properly. He has been killed three times now, but is still alive. Twice he has been killed by an orbital strike weapon known as an Ion cannon, and once by a GDI Commander who ran him through with some scrap metal; however he still comes back for more. NOD has been around since the mid 1990's, but there are rumors abound that they have been around for a lot longer. The earliest I have heard was about 1,800 BC, around 3,200 years ago. It currently is 2048 AD," Johnson said.

"Huhn, I remember receiving a report about another enemy that you said being here. Is it NOD?" the General asked.

"Negative, they are an alien force that has invaded Earth. For reason that I just found out about, through the information gained at the cruiser. I haven't looked through those files in detail yet, but I do know that they are called the Scrin, and the reason that they came to my world is for the Tiberium," Johnson said.

"So they are here?"

"Yes, sir, or at least their weapons are. In the cruiser I found a heavily damaged Devourer tank. The tank was design to be able to process Tiberium to add more damage to its main weapon system. The storage tank in the Devourer was damaged. That might be how they discovered Tiberium; however I do know that it was why that cruiser was so badly contaminated with it," Johnson explained, "If they are here, sir. Ground combat would be a bad idea. Both GDI and NOD forces are having a heck of a time pushing them back. Despite the fact that we, GDI that is, were ordered by our CINC to fire on them first, I had a feeling when I first met them that they didn't have peaceful intensions towards us in the first place."

"Any chance we can talk with them?" General Hare asked.

"I don't believe so…" Johnson said. All of the sudden a feline in a Marine uniform rushed in.

"General, sir. This just came in," the feline said breathlessly as he handed over a few sheets of paper. The General's face dropped even farther, if that was even possible.

"No contact?" the General asked.

"None, sir. The ship appears to be lightly armed and seems adrift," the feline replied.

"Do you have any pictures of it?" Johnson asked. The old hare gave Johnson a curious glance. "It might be the Scrin, General. I know what their ships look like. If it is them…" Johnson trailed off.

"Yes we do have some pictures," the feline marine replied. He tapped the PDA in his hand a few times and a 3D picture of a ship appeared over General Hare's desk. The vehicle struck Johnson as odd. It definitely was not Scrin, nor was it anything GDI or NOD has produced. The vehicle shape, for some reason, struck Johnson as familiar. Then it hit him, Krystal's ship! That is what it reminded him of. 'I need to talk to Krystal about this…' Johnson thought.

"Sir, it's about to breach the perimeter. What do we do?" the feline asked.

"Sir," Johnson interrupted, "I could try and board that craft and get communications up and running if it is friendly. If it is hostile, then I can either commandeer or scuttle her."

"That is a risky proposal, Master Sergeant. Are you sure you can do it?" the General asked.

"That's my job, sir," Johnson said, "Besides, if the vehicle is hostile and I do commandeer it, I can use it to try and get in contact with GDI Command. We might be able to get some more men and equipment to try and help you battle this Tiberium Infestation." The old hare locked eyes with Johnson, for a bit while he made his decision.

"Alright, Ghost, but you are going to need back up. I'm sending Star Fox with you. They will be able to get you onto the ship and help you commandeer it," the General said. Johnson's eyes narrowed at this.

"I don't need their help, sir. Just allot me a few of your Marines and I can get this done in no time," Johnson said.

"The Marines are needed elsewhere, and Star Fox is free. They also are the best we have. This is a priority mission, Master Sergeant. It must be completed. We need the equipment your kind can supply," the General said.

"General, they are mercs. I cannot afford to have men with me that I can't trust," Johnson stated.

"Ghost, you can trust Star Fox with your life. I should know, I used to be one of them," the old hare said. Johnson paused at that. He then shook his head in resignation.

"Alright, but on one condition," Johnson said, "They are under my command, and what I say goes without argument or complaint."

"I'll have to ask Fox about that but I believe we can come to an arrangement," the General said. He then tapped his desk a few times and started speaking to it. Johnson walked towards the door to the CP when it suddenly opened and Falco and Slippy both walked in. Behind them he saw Fox and Krystal talking. Johnson walked past the frog and bird and towards the pair of foxes when Krystal suddenly slapped Fox and took off. Johnson quickly ran up to Fox.

"What happened? Where is Krystal going?" Johnson asked, when Fox didn't respond Johnson pressed on, "We need all of Star Fox to report in for a new assignment."

"Krystal is no longer part of Star Fox," Fox said as he walked into the General's office. Johnson shook his head and ran after Krystal. He ran out of the CP and looked around. Not a trace of her. Johnson turned to the Marines standing guard.

"Where did Krystal go, marine," he said.

"That way," one of the Marines said as he pointed off towards the hangers. Johnson then raced off after her. Johnson tore around the corners. The few marines and naval personnel that Johnson ran into were either physically pushed out of the way or run over. Johnson didn't stop running until he got to the hanger that both he and Krystal arrived in. The ship was still there. Johnson looked at the craft for a brief second. It did look similar to the unidentified craft. He then ran up the still open ramp and into the craft.

"Krystal?" Johnson yelled. He heard no response. Johnson moved through the ship rapidly until he got to the cockpit. Inside he heard some sniffling from inside. Johnson quietly opened the door and looked inside. There Krystal was curled up on the pilot's seat, silently sobbing. Johnson silently walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Krystal, are you-" Johnson started to say before Krystal jumped off the seat, threw her arms around him, pressed her head against Johnson's armored chest, and broke down crying. Johnson's hands went up in shock. Johnson then awkwardly brought his hands down and gently put them around Krystal. Johnson didn't know what to do as she cried into his chest. Krystal's sobs slowly started to die down as Johnson gently held her. Johnson started whispering into her ears that it'll be alright. Eventually Krystal cried herself to sleep. Johnson gently picked her up and walked back into the cargo hold. He laid her out on a bench there. Johnson brushed some of her hair out of her eyes and watched her as she slept peacefully. Johnson then stood up, walked out of the cargo hold and into the hanger bay.

"EVA, get me in contact with the General," Johnson said.

"Standby…Connecting…Complete," EVA stated.

"Ghost is that you?" Johnson heard over the line.

"Yes General," Johnson said. He paused for a moment to figure out how to phrase what he was about to say, "General, have you filled Star Fox in on what their new mission is?"

"Yes, I have. Fox isn't too happy about you leading the team, but he will follow your orders," the old hare replied.

"Good, I have to add one more person to the team roster before we go, I just…need her to wake up," Johnson said lamely.

"Well, why don't you wake her up then?" Falco said over the line.

"I would if she hadn't just spent the past five minutes crying into my chest armor," Johnson stated heatedly. That shut Falco up.

"Who is it, Ghost?" Fox asked.

"I'll tell you when we meet face to face. Right now, I need you all to prepare for the mission. Hurry up and get your PCI (Pre-Combat Inspection) done," Johnson ordered, "In fact, I want you, Fox, to report your units status in ten minutes for ground combat detail, and in twenty from now, your space-born equipment."

"It'll take some time-" Fox started to say before Johnson cut him off.

"Well, you better get moving. We don't have time to dick around. Now MOVE IT!" Johnson yelled. He then closed the link and then walked back into the ship. He heard a moan and looked over at Krystal. She was tossing and turning. The look on her face immediately told Johnson she wasn't having a nice relaxing dream. He walked over and shook her gently.

"Krystal, wake up. It's just a dream," Johnson whispered, "Wake up." Krystal suddenly shot up and was gasping for breath.

"Krystal, are you alright?" Johnson asked. She looked at him for a bit.

"Ye…Yeah… I'm fine," she said before everything came rushing back. She looked at Johnson straight in the eye. "Thank you, Ghost. For everything," she said softly. Johnson smiled, but then realized that Krystal couldn't see it through his helmet.

"No problem. Feel up to going to work?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah, although-" Krystal said before Johnson interrupted.

"I need you as a mission specialist on this. I believe that you might have information that will greatly help us with this mission. Fox has no say over whether you go or not," Johnson said. Krystal looked up and nodded her head. Johnson helped her up and they both walked off the ship.

"We'll brief you when we get to the CP. Let's move, we don't have a lot of time. I might have to brief you on route," Johnson said as he started to run towards the CP. Krystal stepped up her pace to keep up. They both ran through the corridors. This time however, Johnson took the time to dodge around the various personnel that he ran into instead of just running them over. Eventually they got to the CP and entered. They went straight to the General's office. Johnson knocked on the door before he entered.

"Master Sergeant Ghost, with Krystal, requesting permission to enter," Johnson announced.

"Enter," the muted voice of the General answered. Both Johnson and Krystal entered the room. Star Fox had already left for their ship, due to their absence. Johnson nodded to the general.

"Here is our mission specialist, General," Johnson said.

"I see, it is good to see you again, Krystal," the old Hare said.

"It is good to see you too, Peppy," Krystal replied. Johnson noted the friendliness between them, but didn't comment.

"General, can you please bring up the images of the craft we are going to investigate, sir?" Johnson asked. General Hare nodded his head and tapped a few things on his desk. The picture of the ship came up.

"If you have any questions, you'll have to ask them on route, we don't have much time. Alright, this is the ship. We have not been able to contact it, nor has it responded at all to our attempts to contact it. We are going to assume it's hostile, but we aren't going to shoot it down. We are going to board the craft and secure it. If it is friendly, however we are to get them to slow down and turn away from the perimeter. Then we are to render any aid that they require," Johnson explained, "If it is confirmed hostile, once we commandeer the ship we are to repair what we need, then take it to try and contact the GDI from my home. Once there, we need to try and get whatever supplies we can to help combat the spread to Tiberium on Corneria. This is a high priority mission." Johnson paused and allowed Krystal to take in the information. "I'm curious, does that craft seem familiar to you?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah… Yeah! It looks like my Cloudrunner," Krystal answered as her ears perked up.

"That's why I want you as a mission specialist. Now come on, I want you to back brief me on the way to your ship. We'll have to use your Cloudrunner to meet up with the Star Fox team," Johnson said as he turned to face the General, "Sir." The General nodded his head and both Krystal and Johnson left the room.

"Alright, RoE?" Johnson asked.

"RoE?" Krystal asked confused.

"Rules of Engagement. What are we allowed to do?" Johnson clarified as they rounded a corner.

"Oh, we are to take over the ship if it is hostile and if it is friendly assist in repairs," Krystal said.

"Objectives?" Johnson asked.

"Secure the ship, assist in repairs, and contact the GDI. By the way, what is the GDI?" Krystal asked.

"Global Defense Initiative. A world-wide peacekeeping organization and it only recently became a de facto government. I'm a Commando for the military part of the organization," Johnson explained as they continued to walk down the halls towards the hanger where Krystal's Cloudrunner was docked, "Allies?"

"Uhhh…" Krystal thought.

"Star Fox, the GDI, and maybe the people aboard that craft," Johnson said after a few seconds of silence. Krystal's ear tinted red.

"Don't worry about it, if you have any questions ask them now," Johnson said as the entered the hanger and moved towards the Cloudrunner.

"No questions. Although I am a little more curious about this Tiberium stuff," Krystal said as they enter the cargo hold.

"That information will be dispersed as the General sees fit. Let's focus on the mission. Tiberium will have no effect on us, unless that craft is infected with it," Johnson said. They entered the cockpit. Krystal sat down in the pilot's seat while Johnson took off his jump-pack and sat down in the Co-pilot's seat. Krystal did the preflight while Johnson checked over his gear.

"We are ready to go, Ghost," Krystal said.

"Let's go. We are already late as it is," Johnson answered. Krystal grinned and the Cloudrunner took off.

"Fox, this is Ghost. I need a SITREP, now," Johnson said over the radio.

"We are all ready to go, Ghost. Everything has been taken care of," Fox answered.

"Can you hurry it up already? Get this mission specialist person and let's go," Falco's voice said over the line.

"Falco, keep this up, and you are walking home," Johnson growled, "I don't know what your previous commanders were like, but I WILL NOT TOLERATE INSUBORDINATION! Do I make my self clear?!" Johnson yelled into the radio. He then cut the line and glanced over at Krystal. She had a smirk on her muzzle as she looked at him.

"What?" Johnson asked. Krystal just shook her head and the Cloudrunner sped off to meet the Star Fox team, who happened to be in their aero-space fighters.

As the Cloudrunner approached the group of fighters, Johnson looked them over quickly, "Alright. It's time to earn some hazard pay. Move to intercept that craft." The four craft then sped up and flew towards the slowly approaching unidentified craft.

"Krystal, what weapons do you have?" Johnson asked as they approached the craft to dock with it. The vessel looked more and more like a derelict craft as they approached. The hull was pitted with micrometeorite impacts and the like. It looked like it had been abandoned for quite some time.

"A blaster, that gatling gun I had from before, and my staff," she answered with a smirk, "Why? Do you want me to go with the gatling gun again?"

"Funny, no," Johnson said plainly as he mentally prepared himself of the coming mission, "This will be CQC (Close Quarters Combat), so the staff and the blaster. I assume the blaster is the weapon that the others had when we were heading towards the crash site?"

"Yeah, Once we dock, I'll grab that," Krystal said as the docking bays to the craft suddenly opened.

"Ok, I award them maximum points for creepiness. Either this is automatic, or they are expecting us," Johnson said over the radio, "Alright, prepare for an ambush possibility. Don't shoot unless you get shot at first. Lock and load gentlemen. We go to the widowing field once more."

"What about me?" Krystal said with a light jab to Johnson's armored shoulder.

"Once you dock, get ready for combat. These people know we are here, so stay frosty," Johnson said as the ship rocked slightly.

"We're docked, let's go," Krystal said as she unstrapped and move to gather her gear.

"Yeah," Johnson said with a primal, humorless grin, "Let's get this party started."

**Author's Note 2:** Alright, again you know the drill. I'll drop it back down to five reviews this time. Heads up, this is the second half of the last chapter, so that is why it is short. I lost this thing twice so I decided here was good enough.


	6. Chapter Six: Event Horizon

**Author's Note:** Ok, I really need to make this clear. I will update when I am ready, I just don't make it a priority until I get a certain number of reviews. The last chapter I wanted six reviews, but only got four and I still posted it. This one I wanted five, and only got three and yet here it is. Another thing to make clear is that this is all written based on Johnson's knowledge. Not mine. Johnson the kind of guy that is the stereotypical, 'yea, yea, yea, that's all well and good. Now how do I kill it?' kind of commando. He isn't always going to be right about everything. In other words, all of this is from his knowledge base, not mine. Last thing, I know I haven't updated this in a couple of months, and I'm not happy about that. However, college life, ROTC, Army life (related to ROTC), and finals have been keeping me from writing at all. Also, I have certified that my laptop hates me, and deleted this document three times (as well as one of my finals for college on the day it was due)… Does anyone have a laptop that I can have to use for writing instead of this evil thing? Please? (insert little kid voice) I'll be your best friend! Pretty please, with whip cream and a cherry on top? (remove little kid voice)

**Response to Reviews:**

Lord-Emmanuel-Darkov: Thanks for the complement. I spent quite a bit of time working on the dialogue, but then again that is all the chapter was. That was a hard chapter to write because I'm the kind of guy that craves action in a story. The big gun scene is something that will be brought up time and time again, because Krystal will not let any of the Star Fox team live it down.

Cody MacArthur Fett: Alright, thanks for the heads up. I never heard of that story before, I'll have to read it. As I placed in the author's note, this is written from Johnson's view and with his knowledge. Johnson doesn't know everything and is not always going to be right. Harvesting is also the best chance the Cornerians got at fighting Tiberium since they don't have the sonic technology to fight its spread. Johnson knows about Sonic tech and took into account that the Cornerians didn't that kind of tech (since the Sonic tech GDI uses, requires Tib. Cornerians just got Tib so…) The comment about holding back for reviews is something I obviously need to clarify. I don't make writing this story, and putting it up for people to read, a **priority** until I have a certain number of reviews. If I finish before I have the number of reviews I would like, I'll just edit it for a few more days, or something like that, and then post. If I do have the number of reviews, I'll edit it thoroughly and post it the same day. I'm currently writing about four different stories at once and this is just a side project compared to the Novel I am writing. Another thing, this may seem like the main plot, but it is going to take a major twist. I have a storyline in my head that will go for quite a few chapters, and more.

Mooarge: So… Is that a good thing? I'm not sure how to interpret your review… At least I glad that it still rated as a good chapter.

Chapter Six: Event Horizon

Johnson checked his gear one last time before he moved to the hatch of the Cloudrunner. Krystal stepped up beside him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Let me," she said before she seemed to concentrate before she opened the hatch. Johnson's training then took over, as his rifle snapped up and he rushed through the door. Johnson automatically checked each corner of the large hanger they were in as Fox and his team got out of their crafts. The hanger itself seemed to have seen better days. There was dust all over the place, along with old rusted tools, and various other objects scattered about. It reminded Johnson a lot of the old Kodiak that was used back during his training to be a Commando. There was a large door behind him that showed space, but was separated by a light blue screen. When Johnson looked at the room a little closer, he noticed that there were some scorch marks on the wall; they definitely came from combat. Johnson walked over, carefully scanning the surroundings, and kneeled down near one of the scorch marks. 'Plasma-based weaponry was definitely the cause. There was a fight in here. I wonder between who,' Johnson thought as he stood back up and saw that the Star Fox team had already secured the rest of the hanger.

"Clear," Johnson said over the radio, "Stack up on that door, there." He pointed to the only door in the hanger. The entire team nodded, but Krystal must have caught Fox's eye as he turned to look at her.

"Kr-Krystal?! What are you doing here?!" Fox asked, although it was almost as much of statement as a question.

"Ghost asked me to be here," she said, but before things went any further, Johnson stepped in.

"Fox, you have your orders, carry them out. Breach that room when you are ready. We have a mission to complete," Johnson ordered. Fox looked like he was about to argue, but Johnson glared hard at him and growled, "Now." Fox seemed ready to argue but when Johnson took a step towards him while flipping his rifle's safety from on to off, Fox ran towards the door. Johnson watched Fox do as he was told. He then shook his head. He met Krystal's gaze.

"Let's go. You probably know this ship better than any of us," Johnson said just as the Star Fox team opened the door and rushed in. Krystal nodded her head. Both she and Johnson ran into the room after hearing the Star Fox team call out clear. Johnson scanned the room. There was no lighting in the room at all, but the NVGs (Night Vision Goggles) built into Johnson's armor automatically came on and cut through the darkness. The rest of the team seemed to have their own version of NVGs on. The scoring from plasma weapons was far higher in this room than the bay. Johnson looked closely at a table of some sort that was near him and he could see a slight layer of dust on it. 'This room hasn't been disturbed for some time… Whatever happened here happened a while ago…Maybe a few months ago… Why do I feel as if this will become like that Dead Space game that was so popular back in the early 2000's?' Johnson thought as he looked around the dark room for anything like a light switch. There was nothing on the walls at all; save for a few dark spots that Johnson's experience told him might have at one time been blood splatter. The room itself had three doors including the one they had just entered. After Johnson had finished looking around, he felt himself let out the breath that he had unintentionally been holding.

"There was a battle here," Falco said.

'Really? I wouldn't have guessed,' Johnson thought, but said, "Yeah, must have been quite the party based on the amount of plasma scoring and blood splatter. Right now, our priority is to get to the bridge. Krystal, do you have any inclination on where that could be?"

"No, I don't. I have never seen this kind of ship before. My brother owned the Cloudrunner before he gave it to me. Cerinia didn't have any spaceships, but this does feel like it's from Cerinia. It doesn't make any sense," she replied.

"Alright, I guess we are going to need to split up. Fox, Falco, Slippy, go down that hallway and report what you find," Johnson ordered, "Me and Krystal will head down this way and see what we find. Report in every fifteen minutes and report in immediately if your situation changes at all. Keep your heads down and eyes open. We went into this mission in one piece, let's try and keep it that way. Who ever made these marks could still be here. Move."

"Fox nodded his head and said, "Alright team, move!" The Star Fox team moved to the door that Johnson had indicated and proceeded slowly through the hallway on the other side. Johnson motioned to Krystal to move to the door that they were going to breach. Johnson moved to the right of the door while Krystal moved to the left. Johnson then tried to open the door but it was unpowered. Johnson then tried to muscle the door open when the door suddenly burst open. Johnson then dove to the right while Krystal let out a small scream as something jumped through the door. Johnson quickly rolled to his feet, unslung his carbine, aimed at the thing. The thing that jumped through the door stood on four feet and started to growl.

"GD-Cornerian military! Don't move!" Johnson yelled as Krystal fell back in what looked like horror. The thing sort of looked like a gryphon, the mythological creature from ancient Earth legends, but it didn't have a tail or wings. The thing turned towards Johnson, growled again and leapt at him. A three-round burst from the carbine and the gryphon's corpse was still flying at him. He then shifted his grip on his carbine and nailed the gryphon in the head with the butt of his rifle. The gryphon flew off to the left and landed about a foot away from Johnson. Johnson looked at it again, closer this time. It really was a gryphon, not some machine dressed up to look like one. 'Wow…That Myth and Mysteries class in high school actually helped with something after all. I always thought that would be a completely useless class,' Johnson thought as he nudged it with his foot while he trained his carbine on its head. He kicked it a few times and it didn't move. Johnson looked over at Krystal. With how scared she seemed, Johnson was surprised that her fur wasn't pure white. Johnson moved over to her and helped her up while he activated his radio.

"Fox, this is Ghost. Be careful, we just got jumped by what looks like a gryphon. It's KIA now, but keep your heads down. We still have hostiles here. We are green, green, green," Johnson said.

"Understood, but what do you mean 'green, green, green?'" Fox asked.

"ACE report," Johnson said.

"Oh, ok. We are also all green," Fox said.

"Understood. Ghost over and out," Johnson said over the radio and then he said to Krystal, "You ok, you look like over seen a ghost?"

"Th-That thing… I-It's…It…" she stuttered.

"It's dead. Now shake it off Krystal. We need to focus on the mission," Johnson said.

"Th-That thing k-killed the crew. All of them," Krystal said as she tried to reign in on her emotions.

"Are you sure? How do you know that?" Johnson asked.

"I'll tell you later," she said.

"Great, so much for some new allies…Fox, this is Ghost. Forget about trying to find survivors. They are all KIA according to Krystal. If it moves, call it out. If it doesn't respond, kill it," Johnson said.

"Roger, should we stop focusing on stealth?" Fox asked.

"Permission to go loud granted. Let 'em have it," Johnson said.

"Understood. Going loud," Fox said. Johnson looked at Krystal again. She had pulled herself together and had her blaster ready.

"Let's move," Johnson said as he snapped his rifle up and moved to the door. He looked down the sights of his carbine as he scanned the hallway. He then moved forward cautiously. Krystal was right behind him as he moved forward. The hallway was completely silent save for Johnson's and Krystal's boots hitting the floor.

"I don't like this," Krystal whispered.

"I know," Johnson said, "It's too quiet." Johnson held up a fist and Krystal froze behind him. Johnson scanned the area ahead. He then shook his head.

"I can't tell if there is anything ahead of us. I going to switch to thermals," Johnson said as he tapped and the side of his helmet, "Thermals, on." The green in Johnson's vision became dark blue. He scanned the room for any sign of heat. There was nothing, so Johnson motioned for Krystal to follow. After just a few feet, suddenly a huge plume of heat appeared to Johnson's right. Johnson threw himself backwards and right into Krystal. They both landed on the ground.

"Thermals off," Johnson said as his carbine snapped up and the view through his helmet changed back into that of the standard NVGs.

"What was that for?!" Krystal demanded as she picked herself off the floor.

"I saw a huge flare of heat coming off from this direction. I couldn't tell what it was," Johnson said as he low crawled over to the corner of the hallway that branched off in the direction of the heat. Johnson kept his rifle shouldered as he stood up into a crouch and cautiously moved down the hallway. The hallway slanted upwards slightly and that made Johnson nervous. The hallway was completely featureless. If they got ambushed by anything with a rifle, they would be in some serious trouble. Johnson looked at Krystal and used some hand signals to indicate that the area ahead of them was a 'linear danger area' (AN: a Linear Danger Area is a location that has no cover what so ever.).Krystal looked confused for a second, and then nodded. Johnson replied with a nod and then turned back around and moved down the hallway. His carbine swept left and right as he moved faster through the hallway. He saw a few doors here and there along the corridor, but they were either so badly damaged that it was obvious that they wouldn't open or they were obviously sealed shut for whatever reason.

After what felt like an hour to Johnson, they reached a door that did have power and wasn't sealed shut. Johnson also noticed that just past the door, the hall started to slant downwards. 'I wonder what's in this room,' Johnson thought as he moved over to the door. Johnson tried to open the door but it was locked. Johnson tried to find a way to see if he could hack to lock, but after a few seconds of just staring at the control panel, Krystal tapped him on the shoulder. Johnson looked at her, then stepped away from the control panel.

"Have at it," Johnson said as he took up a covering position, and after a few seconds the door hissed open. Johnson looked over at Krystal and said, "Show off." Johnson then quickly entered the room and swept through it. The lights in the room revealed a mess. Consoles all over the room were in various states of 'deconstruction.' Most of them seemed to have taken direct hits from energy-based weapons, and others were just too damaged to tell what happened to them. Everything was in disarray. Johnson eventually pieced together enough information that he figured out what room they were in. It was the bridge. The battle in here must have been very fierce, since the damage was near total. The bridge didn't have a viewing port into space like a few of the spaceships that Johnson had been on did, but there was what looked like shattered glass on the ground near the back wall, which to the bridge crew would be the front wall. Johnson guessed it was possible that there was a screen there at some point. Johnson looked for some active consolee. He eventually found one that worked, but was still heavily damaged, and it didn't seem to be working too well.

"EVA, hack into the computer and download any non-corrupted file," Johnson said as he turned and looked back at the door they came in.

"Accessing…Accessing…Hacking…Hacking...Accessing…Accessing…Analyzing…Analyzing…Analyzing… Compiling…Downloading…Downloading Complete," Eva stated.

"Man, this place is a mess. What do you think happened here?" Krystal asked, as she walked up behind him. Johnson just shrugged as he moved away from the consolee.

"EVA, any chance that you can access the ships engines and stop this boat?" Johnson asked as he aimed his rifle at the door. 'Something doesn't feel right,' Johnson thought as he aimed his weapon at the door. He moved over to an area where he can see the door and has access to immediate cover should he get shot at.

"Accessing…Accessing…Accessing…Accessing failed. Controls are locked out excepted from direct input by either bridge crew or Engineering," EVA stated.

"Krystal, do you think that you can fix that console enough that we can use it to stop this ship?" Johnson asked.

"I'll try, Slippy is better at this than I am. It will take some time," She said as she Johnson heard her move over to the console and start fiddling with it.

"I don't know why, but I don't think we have a lot of time. Get to work on it, and finish it ASAP. It doesn't need to look beautiful, just needs to work," Johnson said and as he did so, he could have sworn he saw a shadow move just past the doorway, "Hurry, I think we got company…" Krystal started work on the machine furiously as Johnson kept a close eye on the door.

"I'll need to salvage some parts, but I think I can get it back to proper working order," she said.

"I don't think we are too worried about that here," Johnson said as he indicated the entire room, "Take what you need to get it done, just hurry." Krystal start to dash about the room collecting what she needed as a shape jumped out of the shadows, over his cover, and knocked Johnson to the floor. His carbine flew across the room and landed with a clack.

"Contact!" Johnson yelled as the gryphon landed on top of him. Johnson grabbed it by the throat with one hand as it tried to lunge for his face.

"Don't move! I'll get it off!" Krystal yelled.

"No! I'll take care of it; get to work on that console!" Johnson yelled as his free hand fumbled for his combat knife. He finally got a hold of it and yanked it out of its sheath. He then jammed it into the gryphon's neck. The gryphon creature went limp and Johnson threw it off him. He got back to his feet as two more jumped into the room. Johnson flipped his knife so that he held it by the tip and threw it at the two beasts. It flew through the air and lodged itself in one of the gryphon's head. The other quickly launched itself at Johnson, but he dodged out of the way. He then jumped at it and grabbed it around the neck. He twisted the beast head with all of his strength, and heard a satisfying crack. Johnson let the beast fall to the floor limply to the floor and pulled out his reserve pistol.

"Fox, this is Ghost. We have hostile contact! We're currently on the bridge. Abort your mission and get your tails over here!" Johnson yelled over the radio as another gryphon jump out of the shadows just to receive a bullet to the head. Another three took jumped out and Johnson started firing his weapon at them. With half his magazine gone, Johnson saw a new being appear. This one looked like a NOD cyborg from the second Tib war, even down to the arm cannon of theirs, but instead of a human being used, it was made with a being like Krystal, a fox with blue fur. Johnson aimed for where he thought the cyborg's CPU was, when it started shooting at him. Johnson dove to his left as the plasma bolts slammed into the deck plates he had occupied just moments before. Johnson rolled with the dive, landed on his feet, and started firing his pistol at the cyborg. As the last round left the chamber, Johnson saw that the weapon was having very little effect. The cyborg turned its attention on Krystal.

"Krys! Get to cover!" Johnson yelled as he holstered his pistol and ran for his carbine. Krystal saw the cyborg and dove behind a damaged console as the machine opened fire. The bolts slammed into the console rapidly and Krystal cringed as the rounds started to eat through her cover. To stick her head out to fire her blaster would be a death sentence with the amount of fire hitting her cover. Johnson quickly grabbed his rifle as four more gryphons ran into the fray. Johnson focused on the cyborg first. Johnson fired two bursts of rounds from his carbine, one hitting the chest of the cyborg and the other hitting the head. Its head exploded in a gory mess as the cyborg was thrown to the ground. Johnson then shifted his aim to the gryphons and open fired. Three jumped at Krystal and one jumped at him. Johnson's shots hit one of the gryphons that jumped at Krystal in mid air as the one that jumped at him knocked onto his back. Johnson quickly smashed his rifle into the beast's face and followed that up with smashing his head into the gryphon's beak. Johnson then pushed the beast off him as it reeled from the hits. He quickly got to his feet and smashed his foot into its head, and then into its neck and held his foot there. He then pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of its head and squeezed the trigger. The beast's head exploded into another gory mess. Johnson then quickly looked over at Krystal, when he saw the she had things under control.

Krystal quickly smashed one of the gryphons in the head with her staff and quickly spun and hit the second gryphon as it jumped at her. Krystal's staff became a blur as it rapidly hit both gryphons. Krystal obviously knew her stuff when it came to using a staff. Johnson was surprised that she could actually use a staff as effectively in a ranged-combat centered world, as she did. Soon both gryphons dropped to the ground dead.

"Good kills," Johnson said as he focused his attention back on the door. Suddenly Fox charged through the door. Johnson almost shot fox in the head when he did that, but was able to stop his finger from discharging his weapon. He didn't even see that his helmet indicated him as friendly. Falco and Slippy also came rushing through the door soon after.

"Well, well, well. Look who arrived, the cavalry. A little late boys, the enemy is already dead," Johnson said as he walked over to them, he then smacked Fox on the back of the head.

"Hey! What was that for?" Fox demanded as he rubbed the now sore spot on the back of his head.

"You ran through the door! That's why. I almost killed you because I thought you were a hostile. Whatever these things are, they are decent in combat. We need to set up a challenge-reply to make sure that never happens. If I didn't see that it was you and that my helmet said you were friendly, your brains would be on the wall right now. Now the challenge word is Star, the reply is Texas. Alright, remember that," Johnson explained as he aimed his weapon at the door again, "Now Slippy, start working on the console that Krystal was working on. Krystal, help him where you can. Falco, Fox, take up covering position on this door. It's a bottleneck point, Make sure your field of fire doesn't contain one of us and that it's centered on the door. Move!" Fox and Falco both moved to cover the doorway while Krystal and Slippy got to work on the console. Johnson moved over to the gryphon that had his knife, and yanked it out. He then moved over to another console that cover the doorway, took a knee, and decided to look at the files that he gathered from the computer.

"Krystal, can you translate these files, into English?" Johnson asked as he opened a file and quickly glanced through it, seeing that it was in a foreign language. The language they were written in used English characters, but they were in an order that he had never seen before.

"Ah, yes. It's actually really simple to translate from Krazoan (A/N: If anyone knows what the name of the language that Cerinians speak, please let me know. I just went with what I have seen several times, since I don't know myself) to Lylatian. All that you need to-"

"Here, explain it to EVA, not me. EVA will be automatically translating the documents into English, and I don't know if that is the same as Lylatian. If it isn't EVA will let me know," Johnson said as he turned back around and faced the doorway. Krystal started talking to EVA, while Johnson ignored the conversation. After a few minutes of explanation, Krystal stopped and went back to helping Slippy.

"EVA, translate the documents downloaded from this ship to English and bring a few of the documents up," Johnson said.

"Translating…Translating…Translation complete," EVA stated. A document appeared on Johnson's HUD. Johnson quickly scanned through it, 'Huhn, looks like an AAR (After Action Report/Review), pretty even from the looks of casualties and fatalities,' Johnson thought as he brought up another document. It was another AAR, but of a different battle. Johnson brought up another document. This one was instantly labeled as an Intelligence report in his mind. It talked about a new Bio-weapon that was produced by "the Enemy" as all of the reports have called the OPFOR (Opposing Force). He flagged it as an Intel report and opened another document. This one had several chemical compositions on it, along with details talking about the substance. Along with more Techno-babble and high-geek in the science realm of English (ie: big words that only a PhD in all of the sciences can understand), Johnson came across a picture of the substance. The green crystals in the picture made Johnson do a double take. It was Tiberium! These people created Tiberium! Johnson quickly skimmed through the document again. Most of the information flew so high over his head that it was knocking satellites out of the sky, but one thing that hit Johnson was, 'It was an accident! Tiberium is a by-product of this other substance,' Johnson thought, 'Whatever this substance was, it must have been a miracle drug for them to keep pumping it out despite that Tiberium was the only by-product… I need to get this to HIGHCOM ASAP! This could change the course of this war!'

"Finished. We're lucky that this console can perform several functions, including engine control and communications. I think any of these consoles can perform any function on the ship," Slippy announced, which knocked Johnson back into the present.

"It's definitely a Cerinian ship, but that doesn't make any sense," Krystal said.

"Ours is not to reason why," Johnson said, "Leave that kind of stuff to those who are paid to do that. We are just the guys who give them the info, let them sort it out and make sense of it," Johnson moved over to the console, "Get me General Hare, I need to give him a SITREP. After that, slow this craft down to a stop and we can try and get some Marines to help us clear out this ship." Johnson looked at the newly repaired screen.

"Alright, give me a second," Krystal said as she worked at the console.

After about two minutes, General Hare appeared on the small screen, "Ghost, what is the situation?"

"We have control of the ship, but we have been engaged by hostile forces. I also have vital information about Tiberium that GDI, and possibly even NOD, does not have. I'll forward you the information as soon as I can. This is top priority information. Get this into the hands of your researchers immediately!" Johnson said, "We'll need help clearing this place out as well. The hostile force uses attack dog-like creatures, possibly as scouts, and the only Infantry-type enemy we have faced was a cyborg. The cyborg must have been made out of the-"

"CONTACT!" Fox yelled as the sounds of Blaster fire filled the air. Johnson turned and faced the doorway as his rifle snapped up. Several gryphons and cyborg soldiers rushed into the room. The gryphons were falling because of the fire coming from Fox and Falco, but it took concentrated fire from them to take down the cyborgs. Johnson focused his attention on them. He fire burst after controlled burst into the heads of the cyborgs. He dropped three cyborgs before they focused their fire on him. Johnson ducked behind the console that they had just fixed. He grabbed a frag grenade and threw it into the hallway to protect his team from the resulting shrapnel.

"Frag out!" he yelled as the grenade left his hand. As he ducked back into cover, a round from the cyborgs flew out and hit him in the shoulder. Johnson let out a small cry of pain as the force from the blast threw him back. He landed on his back and gritted his teeth against the pain.

"I'm hit!" Johnson yelled over the roar of combat, "I'm still mobile, and can still fight!" Johnson shouldered his rifle again, but the wound was right in the place that he would rest his rifle. The grenade exploded and shredded several gryphons and even took a few cyborgs down. There were still plenty of cyborgs to kill however so, Johnson threw the pain from his mind and focused on firing his rifle. Every time he fired, he nailed a cyborg in the head, and each time the head exploded and the body fell. Despite being wounded, Johnson continued to reap a bloody toll on the cyborgs while the rest of the team focused on taking down the gryphons and occasionally a cyborg. Where it took Johnson one three-round burst to put down a cyborg, it took the rest of the team several rounds of concentrated fire to bring one down. Johnson then popped up to bring down the last three cyborgs when all three fired their weapons at him. The rounds exchanged dropped all four combatants. The three three-round bursts from Johnson nailed each cyborg in the head, but the rounds from the cyborgs landed all around Johnson. Johnson was stitched twice across the chest, and took multiple hits to his legs and arms.

Johnson crumpled to the ground without a sound and passed out from the pain, but not before hearing a voice cry out, "Ghost!"

**A/N:** Yes, another chapter finished. Well, here is a slightly late Christmas present to all of my readers. Merry Christmas to all! If you are offended by that, then you need to grow thicker skin. If anyone wants to wish me a happy Hanukkah (or anything of the sort), I will not be offended and will say Merry Christmas in return. Political correctness is extremely overrated, and whoever invented that term needs to be hung for even think about that in the first place…


	7. Chapter Seven: Ghost's Shadow

**Author's Note:** I'm kind of surprised that no one has said anything in a review to the tune of, "Oh no! Johnson's down!" I guess it wouldn't be much of a story if I offed him though… Oh well, don't worry, Johnson isn't dead, I'm not that mean (you all will laugh at that later in the story, or once you get to know my style of characters, lol).

**Response to Reviewers:**

Rattler20200: I was wondering where you went. Oh well, I got hung up as well, and Romeo Lima (RL) takes precedents to this stuff. *sigh* where'd the days that I didn't have to worry about everything go? Although with what you said, and it gave me several new ideas. I love having review as the story is being written!

Jonesie1988: I'm glad you liked it. I was told once, in another story I'm writing, that the battle in the story sounded like an actual transcript of a real battle. I strive to make everything as realistic as possible. Also, I now have a beta-reader and the typos should disappear. I hope you will enjoy some of my other works too, Hooah!

Lord-Emmanuel-Darkov: Typos should disappear soon. I got someone who is editing for me, and in exchange, I edit for him. I just need to replace chapters three to six to remove the typos he found. In all honesty, I've never played dark space so I wouldn't know if it was like the game or not, but I was hoping it would add to the creepiness-factor. Nice to know I'm not the only one fighting tooth and nail against college for a degree that I probably will never use (career Army officer, hooah!). Thanks for the luck, I don't know why, but I have a feeling that I'm going to need it.

Chapter Seven: Ghost's _Shadow_

"On your feet, Rookie! Get your sorry excuse of a soldier hide over here and start firing!"

Johnson shook his head and pushed himself back to his feet. He saw his fellow GDI Riflemen firing at a mass of Noddies. An RPG had hit his cover and threw him backwards into a wall. Johnson grabbed his rifle, which lay beside him and threw himself into cover with the rest of his squad. Johnson aimed down his rifle and fired. He emptied the entire clip into a NOD militant squad that was threatening to over run their lines. 'Where did these guys come from?' he thought as he slammed another clip in his rifle. The rifleman directly to Johnson's right was thrown backwards. Johnson ducked into cover and moved over to help him. Johnson then saw that there was a hole on the man's helmet and blood splattered all over the inside of it. Johnson grabbed the man's tags and went back to killing Noddies.

RPGs started to slam into his squad's cover as Johnson said over the squad channel, "Tom bought it."

"Shut it Rookie!" Sarge replied as he threw a grenade at the Noddie RPG team that was pounding their position. The grenade exploded and the three-man team was slaughtered. Johnson focused back on shooting. Rounds from the Noddie militants felt like they were getting closer and closer to his head. He kept a cool head despite the feeling and continued to fire his rifle. Rounds whizzed by, grenade exploded, air strikes were flown in, reinforcements deployed, artillery called in, and more and more men fell. After one hour, to Johnson that felt like three days, he shot the last round in his rifle. He reached down for a new magazine just to find that there wasn't one. He reached for one off of a fallen GDI rifleman and slammed it home. He then looked around. All of his squad was dead, except for him and the Sarge.

The battlefield got strangely quiet. Johnson looked over his cover and out onto the battlefield. Vehicles were turned into hulks by various weapons, aircraft were scattered all over the field, and men lay in various states of dismemberment. Some of them didn't even have enough lift to bury since they must have been hit with a GDI railgun or NOD laser and it just vaporized them. There were a few men still alive in that mess, and they were crawling through the blood-soaked mud and Tiberium to get back to their respective sides. The image burned itself into his mind. Johnson then forced himself to look away, and right into the faceplate of a dead GDI rifleman. Even though that Rifleman was in his squad, Johnson just couldn't put a name to the faceless corpse. Suddenly a bright flash appeared in front of him. He looked up just in time to see a large amount of Tiberium explode. The next thing he knew, he was flying backwards as the Tiberium near him exploded. The last thing he saw was large pieces of Tiberium coming straight towards him.

Johnson awoke with a jerk. His eyes jumped around the room, trying to pierce every shadow. The room had a faded white look to it. He reached up and wiped the cold sweat from his brow while his other hand touched the scars the he had received. He final realized where he was, another medbay. Johnson looked down and saw that he was in another hospital gown.

He sighed as he climbed out of the bed he was in and stood up. The cold metal made his feet burn. He saw his armor nearby. It looked fully repaired. He walked over, quickly checked it over, and discovered that it was fully repaired. He took off the gown and noticed a new set of scars on his body. Johnson touched some of them on his chest and felt the warped, thickened, and senseless flesh move on his chest. A shiver ran down his spine at the feeling. It felt extremely creepy to him. He quickly donned his armor and just as he finished the door to the room opened. Krystal then entered.

"How are you feeling, Ghost?" Krystal asked as she walked over to him.

"Fine," he said as he booted up his armor.

"Good, you had us worried. You were badly injured. I was glad to see that you are still with us, although it was touch and go there for while," she said.

"How long was I out?" Johnson asked.

"Three days, I'm actually surprised that you are up and about with the wounds you received."

"What's the situation?" he asked as he moved towards the door. They both walked through and Krystal started walking towards what he assumed would be the bridge.

"Peppy saw the fight. He sent in a few ships to help us, along with several Marines. We pushed them back by the time they arrived. I was treating your wounds while the rest of the guys and the Marines swept through the ship. We now are in complete control of the vessel. Surprisingly, we didn't take any casualties," she finished as they walked into the Bridge. Johnson noticed several Cornerians working on repairing the damage to the ship.

"I'll need to talk to General Hare," Johnson said before Krystal interrupted.

"The console we fixed up is still available. Besides, Peppy wanted to talk to you before we did anything," Krystal said. Johnson walked over to the console. His armor automatically linked up with the computer and translated everything into English.

"What the!?" Johnson said, "What the heck just happened?"

"What's wrong Ghost?" Krystal asked as she walked up to him.

"My armor, that's what. It's never acted like this. It just accessed this console and translated everything into English. I've always had to confirm commands with EVA. I've never seen EVA actually take some initiative," Johnson explained, "Not to mention that I was just going to ask EVA to contact General Hare, instead of having it translate this console into English."

"Oh! That must be one of the 'upgrades' Slip was talking about. He was the one that fixed-up your armor. He was quite excited when he finished. I don't think he had as much fun as when he was working on your armor," Krystal explained, "I think he said that if something isn't written in Lylatian, the armor would access it and translate the language or bring up a text box with the translation in it."

Johnson smirked behind his helmet, and thought, 'Cool, that will definitely come in handy when working with this ship.' He then started going through the different commands on the console.

"Tell Slippy to get me a list of upgrades he made to this armor, GDI HIGHCOM will want to know what he did the their multi-million credit project, and give him my thanks," Johnson said as General Hare appeared on the small screen, "Sir, Master Sergeant Ghost reporting as ordered." Johnson saluted the small screen.

"At ease, Ghost, it is good to see that you are back on your feet," General Hare said as Johnson dropped the salute and stood at parade rest, "I know you wanted to take that ship to go and return to your world, but I need to ask something of you."

"What's the mission, sir?" Johnson asked.

"I want you to take that ship and recon Venom. I want you to see if you can find out what they are doing. While you were recovering, we had installed a prototype stealth field generator on the ship. I want you to use that to get as close to Venom as possible and find out what they are doing with this Tiberium, as well as where they are getting it."

Johnson grinned behind his helmet, "Understood, sir. This might be fun."

"Star Fox will be with you to provide additional support. You are in command of the mission and the ship, Ghost. Do you want to rechristen her?" the General asked.

"I wish I knew her old name, sir, then I would be able to make a better decision. However, yes I will. I'll call her _Shadow_, and since she's a Cornerian Naval ship now, I guess it's the CNS _Shadow_," Johnson said.

"No, Ghost. She's your ship, I'm giving her to you, as a gift to say thank you for all you have done for us. I assure you, if we ever get in contact with your GDI, I will personally see that an alliance is made. I don't know if we can ever really thank you for what you have done," the General said.

"I'm just doing my job, General. No thanks is necessary," Johnson replied.

"We'll talk after you get back, but is there anything you need for the mission?"

"Can I requisition a few units to assist with the recon?" Johnson asked.

"Anything you need, just ask," the General replied.

"Can I get the thirty-eighth AR to assist?"

"Most of them are on assignment, but I can get a squad to assist you," the General said.

"Specifically I'd like to requisition Lieutenant Haggar. I think he would be extremely valuable to the mission," Johnson said.

"That can be done. I was just informed that his unit just got back from the crash site that you had quarantined. I will send him on the next available transport," the General replied.

"Other than a crew for the ship and maybe some Marines to defend it, I think that will be all," Johnson replied.

"The crew I sent over to help repair have been stationed on that ship for the duration. The same goes for the Marines. If that is all, I'll have the ships with you finish transporting over the weapons, ammunition, and vehicles and you can be on your way," the General said.

"We'll report in as soon as we get some information. Ghost, over and out," Johnson said as he cut the line. The door to the bridge opened and he looked over to see who had entered and smiled when he recognized the Cornerian that walked in. The red fox was dressed in a Cornerian Marine uniform, and the Marine walked over and saluted Johnson.

"Good to see you Ghost, I was worried that you would wind up as another statistic," he said.

Johnson smiled, "It's good to see you too, Sergeant. I didn't know that you got assigned to the _Shadow_."

"Is that her name?" said Sergeant Tom Stevenson, "Good name for a stealth ship. I came here to report the status of the Devil Dogs stationed on board. We are at one hundred percent ready to give any Remnant Ape, a permanent dirt nap."

"Good to hear Sergeant. I want you to let me know when El-Tee (A/N: slang for Lieutenant) Haggar reports in. I have a mission for both of you," Johnson said, "Krystal, do you think you could give the nickel and dime tour of my ship?"

"Sure Ghost," Krystal replied. She led Johnson on a quick tour of the ship. They stopped at the four landing bays, two vehicle depots, and the armory, engineering, the crew quarters, Star Fox's quarters, and then ended at the Captain's quarters. The ship had a sophisticated feel to it, now that it had been cleaned up somewhat. The bloodstains had all been removed, but there were still signs of battle damage. Johnson liked the damage, in a way. The ship was like an old, grizzled, combat hardened soldier that carried her scars with seemingly pride despite how much they hurt. When Johnson saw his room, he had to smirk. It was fancier than he was used to, not to mention larger. As a GDI Commando, he was used to getting a mattress on a frame, not a fancy hotel-like bedroom with a personalized touch. The room still had a lived-in feeling, and still had the previous Captain's stuff. Johnson couldn't help but look through the pictures that were there. The Captain was a tall fox, and according to some of the pictures, was highly decorated. He also had a wife and two kids. The photo of them all together sent a pang of sorrow through Johnson's heart.

"War destroys so many things. While land, buildings, towns, cities, and memorials can be repaired and rebuilt, families can't be," Johnson said as he held the family photo, "The former Captain of this ship had a family; a wife and two kids. I wonder if they know what happened to him."

"I don't know," Krystal replied, "I guess we can only hope."

"Yeah. This is the price of freedom. The lives of the soldier and their families," Johnson said as he set the picture down, "It's funny, throughout the years, there have always been people who have called soldiers, murders. They just don't understand the price that it costs us, the soldiers, so that they can say that. I know that in multiple countries, you could have been shot for that." A loud beep interrupted the solemn conversation.

"Captain, Lieutenant Haggar and his unit have arrived," a voice said. Johnson looked around for a way to reply when Krystal pointed at a control pad near a desk in the room. Johnson walked over and studied the pad for a second. He then pressed one of the buttons.

"This is Ghost, have Lieutenant Haggar and Sergeant Stevenson meet me in the armory," Johnson said.

"Understood, they will be there momentarily, Captain," came the reply.

"Also, make best speed for Venom, and if we detect any enemy forces activate the stealth field generator and record the enemy's positions and strength," Johnson ordered.

"Understood, Captain," the bridge reported, "ETA to Venom, three hours."

"Let's go Krystal. You are going on this as well," Johnson said.

"Why me? I'm not the best pilot here, Fox and Falco are a lot better than me," Krystal asked as they walked towards the armory.

"Because you can follow orders, and I can't chance either of those two loose cannons screwing up this mission," Johnson said. The rest of the trip to the armory went by in silence. When they arrived, Lieutenant Haggar and Sergeant Stevenson were both standing inside the armory waiting for them.

"Captain on deck!" Sergeant Stevenson shouted. Everyone in the armory immediately jumped to their feet and at attention.

"At ease, immediately vacate the armory until further notice, except for Lieutenant Haggar, Sergeant Stevenson, and Krystal," Johnson said. The four Cornerians that were in the armory doing various duties left the room. Once Johnson was sure the room was clear, he walked towards Haggar and Stevenson. "Glad to see that you could make it, Lieutenant," Johnson said.

"It's good to see you too. What's going on, Ghost?" Haggar asked.

"Alright, our mission is to recon Venom. We are currently making best speed there. We will infiltrate Venom's defenses using Krystal's _Cloudrunner_. We are to mark the strength and position of as many Remnant bases as possible. Our secondary objective is to gather as much intelligence on the Remnant's progress in the fields of Tiberium research and Weaponization of Tiberium as possible. In forty-eight hours, we will then exfil the same way we infil'd. We won't be getting any support on this, unless we are in deep trouble, and will be traveling radio silent so pack anything you think we might need. We're not going to get a second shot at this," Johnson said as he moved over to the weapons in the Armory, "Alright, kit up."

"Kit?" they all replied at the same time. Johnson almost face palmed.

"Kit is slang for equipment. To 'kit up,' means to get all of your gear together," Johnson explained.

He grabbed his Carbine along with his usual load out of grenades and knives. Lieutenant Haggar grabs a Blaster and a Sniper rifle, along with ammo for the rifle and grenades. Sergeant Stevenson grabbed a Blaster with a rocket launcher, along with rockets and grenades. Krystal grabbed her Gatling gun, a Blaster, and her staff, along with ammo and some medical supplies. When Krystal hefted her Gatling gun, she grinned at Johnson and winked at him. Johnson sighed as he shook his head while Lieutenant Haggar, who also got the joke, laughed. Sergeant Stevenson just looked at the three of them confused.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

"Another story for another time," Johnson said, "Alright, let's head to the _Cloudrunner_ and start planning our approach." They all walked out of the Armory and headed towards the Hanger where the _Cloudrunner_ was docked. When they got there, they ran into Star Fox working on their crafts. Fox saw Johnson and his crew walking towards the _Cloudrunner_ and ran over to them.

"What's going on?" Fox asked as he looked at Krystal. Johnson stepped in between them.

"We're going on an op. Star Fox is to provide Air Support when I call. Other than that you are to be ready to defend this ship," Johnson said, and then he looked over to Slippy who turned to look at what was going on, "Slippy, I need to a list of upgrades you've don't to this suit on my desk by the time we get back, alright?"

"You got it, Ghost," came his high-pitched voice. Johnson then turned and walked towards the Cloudrunner before Fox stopped him again.

"Why are you bringing Krystal along? Why aren't you having us come?" Fox demanded.

"In order: We are using Krystal's ship to deploy so she's going to fly it. I can't trust you not to question my orders, like now. And with your current track record, on this important of an operation, I can't take any chances. So you're out," Johnson said as he glared at Fox, "Krystal has proven that she can follow orders, while you and bird-boy over there have shown that you can't take even the smallest of orders without questioning it. Now if you don't mind, we are about to arrive at Venom. I need to make sure my soldiers are prepared." Johnson then pushed past Fox and walked into the cargo bay of the _Cloudrunner_.

As he did so a voice over the intercom said, "Attention all personnel, we have arrived at Venom. We are now at red alert. General quarters! General quarters! Man your battle stations! This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill!"

Johnson looked at the three standing in the cargo hold with him and grinned, "Show time."


	8. Chapter Eight: Reconnaissance

**Disclaimer:** Although I have already said, I don't own anything, except for the OCs, nor am I making any form of profit off this besides the ability to be happy about something I did (I mean, that has to count for something, right? Right? *whimpers*). I will say it again. I don't own Command and Conquer, EA does. If I did, C&C4 would not have been as jacked up as it is, and would have come out when it had finally reached its pinnacle of potential and not a moment before. I also don't own Star Fox, Nintendo does. If I did, then Slippy wouldn't be such a girl, Falco would get his *** kicked by a girl so that some air could be let out of that head of his, and Peppy would learn that a barrel roll is the preferred method to move large kegs of beer, and not a flying maneuver. (see "Murphy's Laws of Combat" book, available at )

**Author's Note:** Well, here is another chapter, which I have been sitting on for a while. I wrote it all out during a class that I had. I'm sure all of us (those who are in/have gone through college) know what I'm talking about when you have a class and the only reason you can stay awake is because you have a source of caffeine (Dr. Pepper for me, two plastic bottles a class). Also, I all but aced that class in which I spent more time working on my various stories than actually paying attention in class. Anyways, I was lazy and didn't want to transfer me handwritten story to the bits and bytes that needs so… One last reason I took so long. The Army has been putting tons of stress and appointment/classes/etc on me as well as college (that seemed to forget that I have two full time jobs now…) and I have had no time to write. I was also sore, tired (12 hours of sleep during a four-day period. That's the Army for ya…), sunburned (same four-day period, but spending all the time outside with no sun screen), and only slightly happy (I'm a US Army Sharpshooter with an M4, I hit 32 out of 40 targets during my weapon qualification with the M4, but I should have gotten an Expert… I made such dumb mistakes on those eight targets…). I digress; here is the new chapter.

**Response to reviews:**

Col Duncan: Sorry, this is EA's Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars crossed over with Nintendo's Star Fox. The Red Alert universe of C&C doesn't make an appearance. I've played RA3, and I believe it was a joke. I like the realism of RA1 and RA2, as well as the rest of the Tiberium universe. RA3 was way too cartoony for me. Also for whatever reason doesn't like the dot in your name, so I had to remove it, otherwise your entire name would disappear

Mooarge: Well, I'm glad you liked it anyway. So it took you to getting hit by the Clue bat a few times to get that, huh? (Joke, http:/www(.)intternetti(.)net/(~)jiri/motivation/rpg/cluebat(.)jpg. Remove the "( )" for the link.) They don't see-eye-to eye, and Johnson despises Star Fox. He has good reason to, which I won't tell now. Also, he doesn't like nor trust anyone who is willing to kill for money (ie soldier of fortune, aka mercenaries); however, it is possible for an individual to earn his respect and trust despite being a merc. It isn't easy, but possible.

Chapter Eight: Reconnaissance

Johnson ran into the cargo bay and the hatch closed behind him. Both Sergeant Stevenson and Lieutenant Haggar were sitting with their gear near them. Johnson nodded at each of them, and they nodded back. He then moved past them and went into the cockpit. Krystal turned from her work and looked at Johnson as he entered.

"ETA?" Johnson asked.

"Thirty minutes," she replied, "I sure that the Remnant will detect us, so we are going in fast. Things might get a little rough, so I suggest that you sit down and strap in."

Johnson nodded as he turned around and yelled, "Thirty mikes to touchdown. Pack it in tight; we're going in fast and hard. Lock and load, Infantry! Time to show these punks why we lead the way!"

"Oorah!" the two in the back yelled. Johnson then went over to them and sat down. He then straps himself in and takes another look through the newly acquired documents. It seemed unreal to Johnson. Here, stored in his armor, was the explanation for three wars and countless deaths. He started studying the documents, but most of it was techno-babble and flew over his head. Something about it didn't feel right. The ship rocking knocked Johnson from his deliberations.

"We are entering the atmosphere, no enemy contacts. Ghost, something isn't right. We should have lit up their screens by now…" Krystal said over the intercom.

"Understood, keep an eye out. Try and get us to the ground as fast as you can," Johnson yelled forward.

"Understood Ghost. Touchdown in five minutes," Krystal says over the intercom.

"Something doesn't smell right about this, Master Sergeant," Lieutenant Haggar said.

"I agree, but hopefully we won't run into anything we can't handle," Johnson replied.

"If we do?" Stevenson asked.

"Then you two can run away screaming like little girls, and I'll kill the enemy," Johnson stated with a grin.

"And let you have all of the fun, Ghost? No way," Lieutenant said. All three of them broke out laughing as the _Cloudrunner_ continued its rapid descent into Venom's atmosphere. The conversation died off and the men focused on any last minute equipment checks they needed to perform.

"Touchdown in three…two…one…And we're down," Krystal said over the intercom. Johnson jumped to his feet, ran over to the hatch, and opened it. He then jumped out of the craft and checked the perimeter; not a thing in site. Lieutenant Haggar and Sergeant Stevenson came own right behind him and kneeled down to steady their aim. They both had their blasters out and their other weapons slung across their backs. Krystal then locked the ship down and came down with the gatling gun strapped to her back like the other two and her blaster in her hand.

"Alright, Stevenson, Krystal. Stay here and secure the ship. The Lieutenant and I will gather some vegetation to camouflage the _Cloudrunner_," Johnson said. They both nodded and moved into whatever cover they could find as he and Haggar went into the nearby forest. About five minutes later, they both came out with their arms full of various pieces of vegetation to cover the _Cloudrunner_ in. They then proceeded to cover the Cloudrunner with it, and hopefully camouflage the Cloudrunner from enemy patrols.

After an hour's work, Haggar said, "Alright, done. Now what, Ghost?" Johnson pulled up a map of the surrounding area that was downloaded to his armor before they left. Once he had their position, he noticed, what looked like a nice defensible area just to the North-Northwest of them, at least according to the topographical map, and it was about five klicks (A/N: can't remember if I explained this, but klick = km, also it isn't a misspelling of click) away. It had only one access point, multiple exit points, and had a cliff on one of its sides.

"There is a possible base location, five klicks north-northwest of here. That will be our first recon point. Since there are only four of us, we all need to go recon it. Lieutenant, why don't you and Stevenson stay as a buddy team, and Krystal and I will be the second team," Johnson said, and when he got a nod from Haggar, he continued, "Alright, let's go. Spread out, but stay close enough that you can communicate with each other, but maintain radio silence. Also, hold your fire. Let's try and avoid all confrontations, if possible." The group quickly left their LZ, and move cautiously towards the area Johnson had pointed out. It took them two hours to move the first two klicks.

"Warning…Warning…Large Tiberium deposit detected," EVA stated suddenly. Johnson held up his fist and the squad froze. He then turned around and told the squad to stay where they were, using hand signals. He then slowly crept through the moderately wooded area. He soon got to the edge of the woods and stared across a large open field. However, the field was occupied, in entirety, by large blue crystals. In the center was a large structure that Johnson was highly familiar with, a Scrin Growth Accelerator. Also in the field was the manta-ray-like shape of a Scrin Harvester. Johnson checked the motion to bring his rifle to bear. 'What are THEY doing here? More importantly, if that thing is here, then there is a Scrin base nearby. That means that there is also a group of Scrin nearby. This mission just got that much harder, and that much more important,' Johnson thought as he quietly snuck back to his squad.

"What's going on Ghost?" whispered Haggar.

"First off, we have Scrin forces in the area, as well as blue Tiberium," he whispered loudly. The ears of his companions dropped at the utterance.

"What's so bad about blue Tiberium?" asked Krystal.

"Blue Tiberium is a lot more lethal than regular green Tiberium. It also has more valuable metals and other rare minerals, so when it's refined, it's worth a lot more credits," Johnson quickly explained.

"What do we do now, Ghost?" asked Stevenson.

"Our jobs, Sergeant. We'll finish this recon, and get outta Dodge. Remember, we are going to have to be even more careful, Scrin seem to thrive off Tiberium, so don't let them get close to you. Especially the Buzzers, and you'll know them when you see 'em. EVA, scan the area and overlay the Tiberium field on the map. Then mark the area has highly contaminated and near a Scrin base for Cornerian Intel," Johnson said. He then shouldered his weapon and walked along the edge of the woods, angled to the North. His squad was quick to follow. Johnson stayed just far enough away from the Tiberium so that his squad wouldn't be in danger. The Tiberium field cost them an hour, and forced them through a lengthy detour. During the entire mission, so far, the squad had yet to encounter one Remnant patrol. 'Something is wrong. We should have run into at least one patrol by now, especial since our only insertion method wasn't exactly the stealthiest… Something is seriously wrong,' Johnson thought as him and the squad finally got back on track.

Johnson quickly checked their location on the maps stored in his armor; only about a klick away from the possible enemy base. The squad continued through the thick woods, stopping ever few minutes to make sure that they hadn't been spotted by either Remnant, or Scrin forces. Johnson held up his hand to stop the squad, and then checked the map for a good recon point. About half a klick away from the base, to the east, was a small hilltop/plateau that struck Johnson, instantly, as a perfect over watch position. He placed a NAV marker on the hill. A green marker then popped up on his HUD.

"Alright, follow me closely," Johnson whispered. Once he saw his three teammates nod their heads, he then moved in the direction of the NAV marker. They moved slower than before due to their proximity to the possible base location and possible enemy patrols. An hour-and-a-half later, Johnson held up his hand to stop the team again. He signaled for Krystal and Stevenson to stay put and for Haggar to follow him. They then high-crawled up the hill to the over watch location. Once they reached the top, Johnson activated the binocular function in his helmet while Haggar took out his sniper rifle and looked through the scope. What they saw shocked them.

There was a Remnant base at the location that Johnson thought it would be, however it was overrun with Scrin. Buzzers were everywhere, a few Corrupters were running around, a small wing of Storm Riders were flying around the base, and there were Ravagers assisting other Scrin elements. A Tri-pod then walked onto the scene, firing its three main guns at the base. Johnson could tell from experience that the base was lost. Although the few Remnant forces that remain were putting up a valiant, but stupid and pointless, last stand.

"Guess we don't need to worry about the Remnant anymore," Haggar said.

"But now we need to worry about the Scrin and Tiberium," Johnson said, "I think this situation just got a whole lot worse."

"Agreed," Haggar replied.

"Let's get out of here. General Hare needs to be informed of this," Johnson said. They both slowly crawled back down the hill and regrouped with Krystal and Stevenson. Once there Johnson quickly described what he and Haggar saw. Both were shocked at the information, and both agreed with Johnson's and Haggar's tactical opinion of the situation.

"So what do we do?" asked Krystal.

"The mission is finished. I'm pulling us out, and we're heading back to Corneria. The situation is worse than even I thought," Johnson said, "Now, forget stealth. Let's get out of here." Johnson shouldered his rifle and they all made a break for the _Cloudrunner_. They made much better time, getting three klicks in ten minutes. Right when they past the blue Tiberium field, a blue/white beam landed fifteen meters in front of Johnson.

"Take cover!" Johnson yelled as he dove for cover. Time seemed to slow as adrenaline kicked in. He looked out over the Tiberium field and saw a Devourer tank, with supporting Ravagers and Buzzers.

"Get that rocket launcher on that Devourer! Everyone else, focus on those infantry!" Johnson ordered as the recon squad opened fire. Johnson focused his fire on the Buzzers, knowing if they got too close, him and his team would become so much of a red mist. His rifle cut through the Buzzers quickly, but more Scrin reinforcements arrived in the form of Buzzers and Ravagers. Johnson noticed that the Cornerian blasters, that his team was equipped with, were a bit better than the standard GDI GD2 rifle, but not as good as his carbine. It took a few shots, but they would eventually take down a Scrin Buzzer swarm. Sergeant Stevenson fired his rocket launcher and nailed the Devourer, dead center. The vehicle bounced a bit as the anti-gravity system, or whatever allowed the vehicle to hover, tried to compensate for the hit. Stevenson then got a second shot off and hit the Devourer again. The vehicle slid back a few feet from the hit but then fired another beam at the team. The weapon sliced a few trees in half, but didn't hit the squad as the trees were behind them. Another rocket slammed into the Devourer, and Johnson noticed the damage taking effect. Johnson shifted his fire to a Ravager squad that was getting too close for comfort when he remembered a key thing about blue Tiberium. He said a quick prayer as he grabbed a frag grenade from a pouch. He thumbed the safety clip, and pulled the pin. He then let the spool fly off.

"FRAG OUT!" he yelled as he pitched the grenade into the Tiberium, "TAKE COVER!" The rest of the squad quickly did so, as Johnson tried as hard as possible to press himself into the ground. The thump of the grenade going off was clear for a millisecond before the sound of Tiberium crystals exploding filled the air. The sounds also drained out the noise of EVA stating the fact that Tiberium detonations had been detected. The sound set shivers through Johnson as scenes of battles fought long ago raced through his mind. Old wounds suddenly flared up and ached as the firecracker-like explosions of the Tiberium detonating continued.

Just as suddenly as the explosions started, they stopped. Johnson peeked up and looked at the field that once held a large amount of blue Tiberium. The field was now pockmarked with craters from the explosions. The Devourer was nowhere to be seen, same with the Growth Accelerator that had been in the field previously, and what few Scrin infantry survivors there were, were trying to get themselves back on their feet. Taking advantage of their shock, Johnson shouldered his weapon and open fired. He dropped ten Ravagers before the rest of his squad joined in. They quickly wiped out the rest of the Scrin forces that survived the explosions, and then they regrouped over by the edge of the field.

"We need to go! That explosion would have been heard for miles around," Johnson said urgently as the rest of the team ran up to him, "We need to move, now!"

"Alright let's g-" Stevenson said before Johnson grabbed him and threw him into a nearby crater. He then quickly activated his jump pack and flew away from the position as a beam suddenly cut through right where they had been standing.

"TRI-POD!" Johnson yelled as he landed in the woods, after he crashed through a few branches, "TAKE COVER!" Krystal and Haggar reacted immediately and dove for cover as two more beams were fired at them. Johnson aimed his rifle at the Tri-pod and opened fire. One of the tentacle-like guns turned towards him and fired. Johnson quickly dove behind a small group of trees. While not providing cover, as the beam cut through the trees instantly, but provided enough concealment to make sure he wasn't hurt. The rest of the squad continued to fire their blasters at the Tri-pod. The vehicle barely even reacted to their fire. The Tri-pod continued to spray all of the team down with fire, as Johnson tried desperately to find a way out of this. An idea struck him; it was risky, but he didn't have any other choice. He activated his radio.

"Distract it! I need to get a little closer!" Johnson said over the radio.

"Roger," "Understood," "Got it," they replied. Stevenson stood up and fired his rocket launcher at the Tri-pod, Krystal took out her gatling gun and open fired, and Haggar took out his sniper and fired. Enough firepower hit the Tri-pod that it had to take a step back to keep from falling over. Johnson sprinted for the edge of woods that he had taken cover in, and the moment he got out into the open, he activated his jump pack. He sailed towards the Tri-pod when one of its weapons swung towards him. He quickly changed his direction. The weapon fired and tried to track him, but missed. Johnson landed on the Tri-pod, but he was just barely was able to get a handhold on the smooth surface of the machine. The vehicle started to jerk around, as the pilot tried to throw Johnson off. Johnson pulled himself in as tight as he could to the machine, and held on for dear life.

"EVA, get that jump pack charged now!" Johnson yelled as he checked the charge of his jump pack, thirty percent. It quickly jumped up to thirty-five, then forty, and continued its climb. To Johnson, the jump pack's charging rate was extremely slow, as he was whipped around by the Tri-pod and as it continued to fire on his team. His team was doing admirably well, as they continued to pour fire on to the Scrin vehicle, without hitting him. Ten seconds past before his jump pack was fully charged.

Johnson didn't hesitate as he activated his jump pack. He quickly flew up and was able to grab the cockpit of the Tri-pod before his jump pack ran out of power. It was only at fifty percent, and Johnson hoped that it would be enough for what he had planned.

"Got a little present for ya," Johnson said as he grabbed a demo pack and slammed it onto the cockpit of the Tri-pod. He then activated his jump pack and flew toward his squad as he thumbed the detonator. He landed just as the pack exploded. The Tri-pod, now missing its pilot, started to tilt and then suddenly collapsed. The squad was almost knocked off their feet when the Tri-pod slammed into the ground.

"Move! Back to the _Cloudrunner_!" Johnson yelled as he ran toward the damaged Tri-pod. He quickly slapped another demo charge on it and set it to detonate due to proximity. Johnson then bolted to catch up with the rest of his squad. It took the group two hours the first time, took them fifteen minutes this time. However, by the time they got to the _Cloudrunner_, they were taking fire by Stormriders, Devastator Warships, Invader fighters, Shock Troopers, and Disintegrators. The entire squad was reduced to a "spray and pray" suppressive fire tactics. The entire team was sustained various cuts and injuries, but none of the injuries were sever enough to require immediate treatment.

The squad dug in as quickly as they could to try and suppress the Scrin forces in the area to allow them to leave the planet. Just as Johnson was ready to order Krystal to get the craft powered up and ready to make an emergency take-off, multiple Shard Walkers suddenly showed up and fired on the _Cloudrunner_. The vehicle was torn apart by the massed fire of Tiberium shards, and eventually exploded. Both the squad and the entire enemy force were thrown to the ground, and Johnson and his team were just able to recover before the Scrin forces opened fire again.

"Ghost!" Stevenson yelled out.

"I know!" Johnson replied as he activated his radio, "_Shadow_, This is Ghost! We just lost our extract! Requesting immediate assistance down here! We are taking heavy fire down here, over!"

"Ghost, this is _Shadow_. We are on our way, but we may not be able to get there soon. We just dropped cover and open fired on a few Remnant ships, but there are enough in our way that we will be delayed, even if we focus on dodging those ships, it will still take us some time to get help down to you, over," came the reply from the _Shadow_. 'Yeah, this is SNAFU,' was the thought that ran through Johnson's mind as he made up his mind on what to do.

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Johnson yelled as he opened a map, quickly located a defensible position near a mountain, stood up, switched his carbine to full auto, and laid down heavy suppressive fire, "Go, I'll cover. Move southeast, two klicks! Mountain! Go, now!" Haggar and Stevenson both stood up and ran toward the location Johnson quickly described, while Krystal assisted Johnson with suppressive fire with her gatling gun. Johnson's carbine, while on full auto, is weaker than normal, and is more prone to overheating; however, the rounds put down range still do more damage than the standard GD2 and, if properly controlled, won't overheat. With the amount of rounds being placed down range, even the vehicles chasing the squad took cover. After five seconds of continuous fire, Johnson's carbine overheated, and Krystal's clip ran out. "Break for it! Go, go, go!" Johnson shouted as he yanked two grenades off his harness, pulled of the safety clips and pins, and pitched them at the Scrin. The two of them ran toward the southeast, desperately trying to escape the perusing Scrin forces and regroup with Haggar and Stevenson.

"_Shadow_, this is Ghost. We are falling back from our Insertion point. We are being overrun with Scrin forces. Get out of here and bring the rest of the Cornerian Navy and Marine Corp! We'll try and last till then! Uploading what recon we've got, Ghost out. EVA, get them that Intel," Johnson ordered.

"Compiling…Searching…Transferring…Transferring…Transfer complete," EA stated. Johnson let out a small sigh. 'At least if we die, our mission was completed,' he thought as he ran through the woods. He dodged around trees and punched through heavy brush as the two of them continued to receive fire from the Scrin air units. After five minutes of running, Johnson saw the location that had spotted on the map.

"Krystal, follow me!" Johnson yelled as he ran under a large rock overhang. As they ran under it, they found two caves. Haggar and Stevenson both were guarding one entrance.

"Inside, now!" Haggar ordered. All four quickly ducked into the cave, when Stevenson quickly set up a small device. He then activated it and suddenly the cave entrance was a solid rock wall.

"What the?" Johnson said in surprise, as he stared at the new rock wall. Both Haggar and Krystal quickly left for further into the cave.

"It's a hologram projection, something the techs whipped up for us while you were still napping," Stevenson explained with a small chuckle, "It will react exactly like a rock wall should if touched, and everything. Should thank Slippy for getting it to work."

"Wow, NOD had been experimenting with Holographic tech, but not to this level…" Johnson said, slightly amazed.

"Hey, we found something over here!" Krystal exclaimed. Johnson winced at the noise, hoping that the Scrin didn't hear it, but both of them ran over to where Krystal was. Johnson was about to say something but Stevenson cut him off.

"Before you say anything, the Hologram also has a noise canceller on it. No noise we make will get through it," Stevenson said. 'Ain't that a load off my mind,' Johnson thought with a sigh. They both focused back on what Krystal had found, and were shocked. Bones. Anthromorphic bones.

"Friends of yours, Krystal?" Johnson asked.

"No," she replied. Johnson moved forward and found something clutched in one's hand. It was a sheet of paper, and smudged and faded Krazoan words were written on it. Johnson's armor automatically opened up a text box on his HUD, and it read,

"To whoever finds this letter. My name was (lettering too faded and/or smudged to translate, Error 729)Hearth. I was a member of the (Error 729) Special Forces. My team was sent on a mission of upmost importance to the survival of all races in the universe. We, (Error 729), made a mistake. A horrible mistake. (Error 729) produced a poison. This crystal (Error 729) all it touches. If you see it, stay away; for your own health if nothing else. (Error 729) We discovered a (Error 729) eradicate the crystal. (Error 729) only know of one piece on this planet, the (Error 729) in other (Error 729), discovered (Error 729) dimensions (Error 729) groups called Humans (Error 729) into another species. A parasitic one, we call Flo(Error 729) We ran into a (Error 729) species. The moment we met them, they opened fired. (Error 729) bitter war (Error 729) loosing (Error 729) Another group of our people, (Error 729) Cerinia. (Error 729) They are (Error 729) use the Key. We failed (Error 729). Please helps us, finish our last mission (Error 729) You are the only hope the (Error 729) has to survive. I have one last request. If you can find my (Error 729) that I love her, and that (Error 729) son's birth. If I cou (message ends, possibly message is unfinished due to death of writer or other form of interruption)"

Johnson sighed as he looked up from the letter. He looked over his shoulder at Krystal.

"Whoever this guy was, he was military. According to the translation software in my armor, he was SOCOM. This other groups of bones must have been his team. From the looks of everything, they were cut down while this was still being written," Johnson said as he stood up, "Krystal, the letter mentions something about Cerinia. Maybe you can gleam something from it the translation software can't. The translation was pretty broken. One thing I can say for sure, these were the people that created Tiberium. It says that they made a mistake, though, as if it was an accident. A horrible one, but one nonetheless." Johnson hands Krystal the letter. Stevenson pulls another thing from Mister Hearth's hand. It was an old and faded photo.

"Found something," Stevenson said as he looked it over before passing it up to Johnson. The picture was of two beings like Krystal, one man and one woman. The man had one hand and the woman's swelling stomach and his other on her shoulder. While the woman had one hand on her stomach, and one on the man's hand on her shoulder. They were both smiling at the camera. The man was dressed in, what Johnson guessed, a Class-A uniform, and the woman in maternity clothes. Johnson couldn't help but sigh. He then passed the picture to Krystal, who had to start blinking back tears as they threatened to flow down her face.

"Stevenson, help me give these men the proper burial they deserve," Johnson said as he searched for some form of identification. He was able to find what looked like dog tags. He pocketed them with the GDI dog tags that he still had from Earth. Johnson looked over at Krystal, who was still focused solely on the picture.

"Krystal, how does your culture bury its honored dead?" Johnson asked; when Krystal didn't even move, Johnson repeated himself, only louder this time. Krystal's head snapped up and looked at him. "Well?" Johnson asked.

"Sorry, what was the question?" Krystal asked, as she dried her eyes a bit.

"How do you bury your honored dead?" Johnson asked again.

"I don't know," she replied.

"I guess we'll do it the Cornerian way then, Lieutenant!" Johnson yelled. Lieutenant Haggar ran back to where the rest of the group was.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We're going to give these men the burial they deserve," Johnson said, "Since we don't know their way, we're going to do it the Cornerian way." Haggar then quickly explained what they needed to do. After a quick funeral, they buried the fallen soldiers, and wrote their names in the cave wall next to each grave. It was all finished in two hours. By then, the adrenaline that had been flowing through each of them for most of the day had worn off, leaving them all exhausted. Johnson set up some motion detectors around their "camp-site" and they all lay down to sleep. Johnson couldn't help but run through all of the new information they had acquired. Johnson whispered a small prayer for the families of the fallen soldiers, and tried to keep himself of thinking about the casualties that his unit had suffered. Eventually, Johnson fell into a light and fitful sleep.


	9. Chapter Nine: Past Hauntings

**Author's Note:** An update! Oh my! Someone go check the status of Hell, as I think it just froze over just like here in Minnesota! Yes I am back, AROTC and college life have been beating me down relentlessly. That and this is an important chapter. I won't spoil it, but this is HUGE. If you miss it, then you will be required to wear a helmet to Breakfast from now on (lol). Also, if you have a critique about the upcoming chapter, please give it to me. It's what feeds the muse in me. No feedback = slower chapters. BTW, this was meant to be up by Christmas, but thanks to a horrible internet connect at my grandparents house, I couldn't. Then this was supposed to be up by New Years, and due to my laptop not wanting to connect to my network, I couldn't do that either… Anyway, have a very belated Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. (EDIT: adjusted the paragraphing as they had been eaten by 's uploader...)

**Response to Reviews:**

Mooarge: I won't say any more as it would be a HUGE spoiler for something extremely important coming up. Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if you could figure it out. I tried to make it painfully obvious without giving it away completely. Glad you liked it, as my laptop had deleted/corrupted that one about five times… I think I'm starting to see a pattern. The better it is, the harder I have to work to complete it because my comp keeps deleting/corrupting it.

Archon_of_Darkness: No, I'm not that ev…Actually, I just might…Okay, if my characters were real, they'd hate you right now for the suggestion *evil cackle*

Feuerstoss: Glad you liked it. I'll try the glossary out, see what people think. I agree the way I do it know does kinda pull the reader out, but I couldn't think of a better way to do it, and make it foolproof (which is impossible, since fools are deceptively ingenious). I'm happy you joined when you did, fun things (for the reader, that is *evil smirk*) are incoming. BTW, I love MVP and Zero Point. Hurry up and update 'em!

Graystripe: Glad you enjoyed it. It's nice to have my hard work appreciated.

**Chapter Nine: Past Hauntings**

_A bird sat in a tree outside, right next to the window, and started chirping. It was a sunny day out, and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The wind was calm, and it almost seemed like a normal day. Like those days, he had heard about before Tiberium had arrived on Earth. Something startled the bird, and it quickly flew off. The sunlight shone from the cloudless sky, right into the classroom, and right into his eyes._

_'Another boring day at school,' I thought, as the teacher went on to explain some shortcuts about doing derivatives. The soon-to-be eighteen-year-olds took notes as the teacher showed her class how and why they worked. I stopped writing when I thought I heard something. Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the school. The windows on the back wall shattered and sent glass into the classroom. People were screaming in both fright and pain as some shards of glass found purchase in some students' bodies. _

_"Get down!" a deep voice yelled as gunfire suddenly appeared. I dove for the ground and started to crawl towards one person who was bleeding from a large piece of glass embedded in his back._

_"Stop moving!" I yelled over the roar of gunfire and explosions, "Let me treat this! Stop moving and trust me!" I grabbed a pair of scissors from nearby and cut off several inches from the bottom of the teen's shirt. I then carefully grabbed the piece of glass, and yanked it out. The eighteen-year-old man screamed in pain. I quickly placed the strips of cloth on the wound and pressed down on it._

_"I need help over here!" I yelled just as I heard a snap-hiss pass right by my head. I immediately ducked. I then heard several new screams of pain, and a few suddenly stop, as bullets riddled the classroom. 'This is bad,' I thought as I started to panic. I fought against the feeling with everything I had. Panicking would only make this situation worse. Suddenly a body flew into the classroom, and several people screamed in fright. I looked at the body. It was in a NOD uniform. _

_I then started to crawl for the door of the classroom, along with everyone else still in the room. I eventually got to the door, a crawled out to the hallway. Even though there were no windows, bullets still whizzed by my head as I ran, crouched, down the hall._

_The hallway was almost choked with the dead and dying; GDI, NOD, or civilian. I stopped to help those I could, but more often than not, I was too late or the wound was too serious. I soon became numb to the gory environment around me as I focused on getting out of the school and getting back home, while stopping to help those I could along the way._

_I soon came to the front door. I then noticed that the fighting seemed to have stopped. I peeked outside and saw several GDI personnel running around. I quickly opened the door._

"_Hey! In here! We have wounded!" I yelled as I tried to flag down some of the Riflemen. One stopped and looked in my direction. The soldier then pointed at me, and a few squads of Riflemen ran towards the school._

"_Where?" one of the Riflemen asked. I just stepped aside, and the Rifleman just peeked inside. He heard a slight gasp what could have possibly been a muttered curse, and the man rushed past me. I then left the school and started to run home._

_I didn't think, at all. I just ran. My sole focus was getting home to my family. I was still in shock from the whole even at the school. What started out as a normal boring day, turned into what felt like hours of bullets, gunfire, and death. I was in disbelief about what happened. When I turned onto my block, I got tackled to the ground._

"_Kid! Stop! There are still NOD militias down that street! Get out of here! You hear me?" the armored, white helmet with a blue viewport yelled._

"_Wha-B-but my family!" I said as I pointed a shaky hand toward my house. The garage door was open and a car was still inside. It was obvious that people were still in the house. The soldier looked at where I was pointing._

"_Alright, I'll check to see if they are still inside. Stay here!' the soldier ordered. He then pulled me to my feet and pushed me against a nearby building. He then ran off toward the house._

_Not seconds after he took off, I heard a high-pitched whistling sound. I looked up to see a Vertigo bomber start flying away. I glanced back down at my home, just in time to watch the bomb that the Vertigo dropped hit my home. The house was consumed by the explosion, sending debris everywhere. _

_The GDI soldier had just enough time to dive to the ground before the building exploded. He quickly got up and looked at the crater that the house had become. I, however, was too shocked to notice the trooper. My mind was completely blank as I desperately tried to piece together what had just happened, and yet deny everything as well. I was then roughly hauled to my feet. I didn't even notice that I had been knocked off my feet from the blast._

"_Answer me kid! Are you okay?" the soldier asked._

"_My…M-My-" I stuttered before I was cut off._

"_There is no time for that! We need to leave. Now!" the soldier said as he dragged me stumbling behind him. I followed the soldier wherever he dragged me. My mind was running on full autopilot and nothing else was registering._

_When I started to come out of my funk, I looked around. I found myself in a hospital-like area. There were several injured people around, and GDI Medics were running back and forth treating their wounds. Tears slowly welled up in my eyes, but I clamped down on the feelings. I wouldn't cry. Not here, not now. _

"Ghost_," a voiced said. A Medic walked over to me, and offered him a glass of water. The Medic's mouth hadn't moved, so she didn't say it._

"Ghost_," the voiced said again. I looked around as he tried to locate the sound of the voice._

"Ghost_!" the voiced cried out. Everything suddenly went black._

* * *

Johnson woke with a start. His hand immediately grabbed his weapon as he scanned the surrounding area, the rage from the dream still burned in his chest and it allowed him to focus better. It hadn't been the first time he had that nightmare, he just wished that was all it was. Krystal was standing over him, with her arms on his shoulders. Tears could be faintly seen in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Johnson asked quickly as he sat up, and shouldered his rifle.

"You were tossing and turning so badly…I tried to wake you up…I…I saw…I'm so sorry," Krystal said softly, a faint sob in her voice.

"Saw what? What are you talking about?"

"Ghost…I don't know if you know this, but I'm a telepath. I looked into your mind to see what…I'm…I'm so sorry," she all but sobbed.

"What do you mean, telepath? You can read minds?" Johnson asked quickly, the idea of his mind being invaded by Krystal not sitting well with him.

"Y-Yes, but-but I only saw your s-surface thoughts," Krystal said as she fought to pull herself back together.

"Don't do it again," Johnson said, "My mind is my own, not something for you to read at your leisure."

"I only did it because you were tossing and turning so much. You wouldn't wake up," Krystal said. "You don't have to be alone anymore," she softly whispered.

"I don't need your help," Johnson growled back, anger flaring in his chest. Memories of friends and family shot to the surface.

* * *

"_Sergeant Stevenson, good to see you," I said as I saw my friend from Basic walk up to me. He smiled as he saluted me._

"_Good to see you too, First Sergeant," he said as I returned his salute._

"_I have a job for you and your Platoon," I said as I pointed to a small area on the map in front of us, "There's a bunch NOD Militiamen hold up in this block here. Higher want us to clear them out. I know that you're new to the whole PL lifestyle, and a replacement is coming, but we don't have a choice. They need to be cleared out so the rest of our division can move through. Second and Third Platoons will be guarding your flanks to make sure that there are no unwelcomed surprises."_

"_Sounds fun, First Sergeant. When do we leave?" he replied._

"_As soon as you and the Platoon are ready. Let me know and I'll signal for the rest of the Company to cover your advance," I said, "By the way, I'll be with your Platoon when we engage." He smirked and quickly walked off and fifteen minutes later, we were neck deep in Noddies._

"_RPG! RPG!" I yelled out as I ducked back into cover. An RPG slammed into my cover, and scattered dust everywhere. I popped out of cover and opened up on the NOD RPG team with my G2._

"_Well, Intel did promise us a lot of fun, eh First Sergeant?" Stevenson said as he open fire with his G2. We had taken cover behind the same chunk of building that had been blown off sometime during the fighting for the city._

"_Yeah, _fun_," I replied sarcastically, "we need to break through this stalemate. Take Second Squad and flank this RPG nest from the right. The rest of the Platoon will cover you."_

"_Roger, Oscar Mike," Stevenson said as he stood up to sprint over to Second's position. Before he could even pass by me, his head jerked to the right, and I was sprayed by a red mist. Stevenson flew to the right, a hole in his head and neck._

"_Stevenson! Man down, man down!" I yelled before I got onto the radio, "This is Alpha-four-fife, we have a man down! We are pinned…"_

* * *

Sorrow suddenly struck me as I thought about my fallen brother, but I fought off the tears the built behind my eyes. I had lost

"Ghost, friends help each other. You don't have to go through this alone," she said, "not anymore. I want to help you, Ghost. Please, let me bare some of this burden you have, like friends are supposed to." That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

* * *

"_Private Fisher!" I called out._

"_Here First Sergeant!" he called out._

"_Corporal Davidson!" I called out._

"_Here First Sergeant!" came the reply. Roll call, an honor for First Sergeants but at the same time, our curse. It was the last name on the list. The last name, and he was a friend of mine. Good soldier, even better squad leader, and an even better friend and brother._

"_Staff Sergeant Stevenson!" I called out. The entire company was deathly silent. _

"_Staff Sergeant John Stevenson!" I called out again. Again, silence answered me. I force my emotions down. Tears threatened to spill down my face, but I won't fail my duty as the Company's First Sergeant. I won't let my brother down._

"_Staff Sergeant John M. Stevenson!" I called out. Memories of that battle, that horrible _Rattenkrieg _battle. The closest equivalent would probably be Stalingrad back in WWII. Sprinting from building to building while under intense laser fire from Scorpions, and small arms fire from NOD Militia units; it was probably the closest one could get to Hell without dying. Diving to cover and landing in what used to be the guts of a close friend and brother. Seventy-two hours of nothing but death and destruction. Our Company was lucky to get off as light as we did, especially in the chewed up condition we entered it in, with only one KIA. I just wish it was me and not him…_

"_Company!" I called out, the platoon sergeants looked over their shoulders and called out, "Platoon!"_

"_Attention!" I yelled, and as one, the company snapped to attention. I did an about-face and faced the battle cross we made out of Sergeant Stevenson's gear. His rifle, with its bolt open and no magazine, driven into the ground, his dog tags were on the handle, his helmet on the rifle's buttstock, his boots in front of the small memorial. The battle cross was once described as the only memorial that could truly bring sufficient honor to the fallen hero. Whoever said that was right. Stevenson deserved nothing less. _

"_Present!" I yelled, "Arms!" Everyone in the company saluted our fallen brother. Off to the side of the formation was an honor guard, who did their job._

"_Ready! Aim! Fire!" the element leader called out, which was followed by a rifle shot. He repeated his order, and another gunshot, then finally a third time, followed by the third gunshot. Tears stung my eyes as Taps played over the base's PA system. We all held our salute until the last note faded off into the distance. I slowly lowered my salute. I then did an about-face._

"_Order!" I yelled, "Arms!" Again, as one, the company lowered their salute. It was then I swore, never again. I would never lose another friend, who are the closest thing to family I have. I died inside that day. Another casualty of war, just my body didn't know it yet._

* * *

'Never again,' I thought as anger and sorrow surged through me at the memory.

"What do you know about friendship? You are nothing but a merc! Loyal to nothing but what writes your next paycheck! I am not you friend! I'm your superior. Nothing more, nothing less!" Johnson yelled, "Now leave me alone!" Krystal reacted as if she had been slapped and stabbed in the back. Tears built in her eyes as her tail wrapped around her legs and her ears went flush with her head. Tears spilled from her eyes when she blinked. She then stood up and ran away from the rest of the squad as tears poured down her face. Johnson just sat there and watched, feeling nothing but anger at her.

"Was that really necessary, Sergeant?" Haggar asked, "She only wanted to help." 'Must have been awake for the whole thing,' Johnson thought.

"I'm not a person you get close to, Lieutenant. Not if you want to keep living. Stevenson, see if you can get her back. It's almost time to move out, and see where we can get extracted," Johnson ordered emotionlessly.

"Yes, sir," Stevenson said as he walked after Krystal.

"Once he gets back with Krystal, we'll get three more hours of sleep, and then move out," Johnson said as he lay back down, "Gets some sleep, sir. It might be the last we get for a while." Johnson then quickly fell asleep.

**GLOSSARY:**

Rattenkrieg: German for "Rat Warfare," it is used to describe heavy urban combat. First came into existence during the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII. The joke was that while you may have won a victory for the living room, you're still fighting for the kitchen.


End file.
